TRIO OF VOCALISTS. 
3 
temper ! She perfectly delights in maintaining a sham fight 
with an aggressive finger, setting up her crest, scolding and 
pecking with right good will, and yet she is quieted in a moment 
by a gentle word of affection. 
As soon as these three birds are let out, their first idea is to 
go into each other’s cages, and see what delectable things are 
to be found there. This strikes me as very human. We are all 
apt to think some other lot would be better than our own, and, 
like my birds, a little investigation proves to us that things are, 
after all, very equally distributed. The blackcap and nightingale 
will sometimes e.\change cages for a whole day, but I observe 
that they generally seem glad to return to their own homes again. 
It would have been delightful to have kept the three birds 
in one cage, and I hoped they would have become friends in 
time and agreed to live together ; but no, there is a deadly feud 
between the blackcap and the nightingale, while Fairy is afraid 
of both of them. 1 am curious to know when these two vocalists 
will begin to sing. At present (December) the blackcap only 
chirps, and the nightingale makes a loud noise exactly like a 
green tree-frog, a croak of the harshest description, only varied 
by an occasional clicking note. The bird is most deliberate in 
its ways, standing quietly thinking for three or four minutes, 
and then rapidly carrying out its idea either in a flight round 
the room or making a sudden assault upon the blackcap. At 
other times it will take a tour of inspection, carefully examining 
every article in the room on all sides, as if it intended making 
an inventory of the furniture. When showing the bird to 
strangers I place the cage on the floor, throwing a mealworm 
a little distance off". Out through the open door comes the 
nightingale, and after a momentary pause to gaze at his 
audience, calmly goes in search of the dainty he so dearly 
loves, picks it up and returns to discuss it in the privacy of his 
cage. This little evolution the bird will repeat several times 
with much the effect of a small jack-in-the-box. 
The blackcap is still more sedate, and, once perched on a 
chair-rail in a quiet corner, will remain for half an hour without 
moving. The one thing that rouses the ire of both these birds 
is the arrival of a fourth personage in the shape of my tame 
robin. On seeing him, I am sorry to say that language of the 
most abusive description is launched at him, and he warbles 
back notes of defiance, which though very melodious to my ears, 
probably may embody sentiments that ought not by any means 
to be printed in these pages. The nightingale is extremely like 
a robin, minus its red breast. It is much the same tint of rich 
brown on the back and head, becoming a lighter shade beneath 
the wings. When on the move the bird has a nervous trick of 
shaking its tail and body up and down somewhat after the 
fashion of a wagtail, and my specimen, although so tame, is yet 
shy, and much prelers to be in a darkened cage to remaining in 
the light. I could not quite believe this until I found that he 
