THE LITTLE EMPEROR. 
47 
were invariably ombrophil. Older leaves can stand the rain 
better than the younger, but when their vital activity diminishes, 
and the time of falling approaches, they gradually lose their 
power of resistance. 
A. B. Rendle. 
THE LITTLE EMPEROR. 
AM going to tell you of a little friend of mine who has 
been for the last two years a great source of pleasure. 
He is simply the prince of good fellows, and such a 
companion ! 
I am told it is of somewhat rare occurrence that this bird is 
tamed, yet I think his perfect home-y-ness shows that it might be 
as common as it is rare. A bird fancier amused me a few weeks 
ago by standing in the middle of the library and ejaculating in 
divers tones, “ Well, this is a novelty ; well, this is a novelty ! " 
over and over again. He was brought to me, with a little mate, 
two and a half years ago, by a friend from St. Helena, and is of the 
waxbill tribe — a pheasant finch, they tell me.* But there had, 
I fear, been a wn'smating, for he never showed his wdfe the slight- 
est attention ; he always had a dozen things to do if she mani- 
fested a disposition to nestle up to him, or rest her head against 
him, and would indeed shake her off at times quite roughly, and 
chase her all round the cage. The little pair seemed to have no 
song, only a monotonous chirp. The poor little wife gradually 
drooped and died, and I regret to say that, after a day of aston- 
ished silence, the widower greeted me with a clear and ecstatic 
little whistling song of joy. Every day afterwards during these 
happy years he has delighted us with this song, often accom- 
panying it with a rhythmical dance round his own special plant 
pot, the pot of a large palm which he much affects. We find 
that he dances in perfect time to the ordinary hornpipe tune, 
always with a bit of fern or straw or flower stem jauntily carried 
in his beak. 
I began to let him out of his cage when he had grown 
thoroughly accustomed to me, and never was creature more 
deserving of liberty. He is of an honourable disposition, for 
though the library door is often open he never flies into the hall 
beyond, being quite content with life as he finds it. Three 
minutes ago he was on my shoulder, carefully examining a fluffy 
shawl I am wearing, and giving little investigating tugs to the 
knots. I know he regards it as a workable mine for nest build- 
[* The Pheasant Finch, or St. Helena Waxbill (Estrilda astrild), has a wide 
range in Southern Africa, whence it was probably introduced into St. Helena. — 
Ed. N.N.'\ 
