AN EGYPTIAN PET. 
147 
repeated. When left alone I sometimes heard Bully warbling 
rather prettily to himself, and I should fancy if patiently in- 
structed when quite young, such an intelligent bird might be 
taught to whistle tunes, or even to speak a few words. 
This bulbul often reminds me of my beloved Virginian 
nightingale, “Birdie”; he has the same kind of quick, bright 
manner, and certainly no bird could well be tamer or more 
affectionate; he seems perfectly happy if allowed to sit on my 
arm or shoulder and feel the touch of a kind hand caressing his 
soft feathers. Bully’s diet consists of fruit, either dried or fresh, 
mealworms and flies, and some soaked bread as a variety. 
When set at liberty, before doing anything else, he makes it 
his conscientious duty to kill every fly in the room, so his 
presence is highly desirable during the summer months, when 
all kinds of winged creatures seem to flock to the window panes. 
One morning I found twenty-one dead bluebottles slain by the 
bulbul, who, with erected crest, stood whistling joyfully over 
their remains. 
Seeing his own reflection in a looking-glass draws forth his 
sweetest warbling notes, for, with all his high intelligence, the 
bird seems always deluding himself with the idea that he has 
found a mate, to whom he whistles with much unavailing ardour. 
When I first uncover the bulbul in the early morning, his 
joy and affection seem to throw him into a kind of ecstasy, he 
humps up his back, and depresses his head and tail, opens wide 
his beak and gurgles forth a sweet and touching greeting of 
deep affection, swaying his head from side to side ; as he sings 
he gazes at me, too entranced to think of food, or liberty, or 
anything but love. 
I have never before heard of a bulbul kept in captivity in 
this country, but the habits of the bird are so charming, and 
its ways so playful and full of character, that it seems to combine 
almost all the qualities one can desire in a feathered pet, and 
one cannot but recommend it to students of domestic bird life. 
Eliza Brightwen. 
A Blackbird’s Nest. — Is not the porch of a suburban house a rather 
unusual place for a blackbird’s nest ? We always feed the birds all the year 
round, and both last winter and the one before have had blackbirds, thrushes 
and tits among the crowd of starlings and sparrows as our welcome guests. Last 
month a pair of blackbirds built their nest on a ledge in the woodwork of our 
front door porch, partly supporting it by stems of the clematis that is trained 
there. The hen has been sitting for thirteen days and does not seem at all dis- 
turbed at the frequent knocks and rings, and the many openings and shuttings 
(often noisy ones) of the hall door. I should be glad to know if there are many 
instances of such trust shown by those unusually shy birds. 
M. C. T. 
