GOLDEN-CROWNED CONTJRE. 
91 
did we want them for? We had heard, we said, that they would 
breed with Canaries. Certainly, replied the dealer, button-holeing ns, 
after his custom, and looking up confidently into our face, don’t you 
know that is where the Lizards come from? Cinnamons, you mean, 
we replied, somewhat maliciously we must confess. Of course, replied 
the dealer. Cinnamons I meant; thus revealing his utter ignorance of 
the subject: for, of course, if mules were obtainable, which we doubt, 
between birds of such widely divergent habits as the Saffron Finch 
and the Canary, although they closely resemble each other in appear- 
ance, they would be sterile, as every hybrid is: so we had a quiet 
laugh at our scientific and omniscient friend the dealer, whom we have 
again and again conducted into similar pitfalls, to his momentary dis- 
comfiture; but so overweening is the vanity, and so consummate the 
self-complacency of the man, that he promptly recovers himself and 
begins again, as amusingly as ever, to air the knowledge he does not 
possess, with a pompous assumption of exclusive information that is 
really “as good as a play.” 
Well, we have wandered an immense distance from our Half-moons, 
and must hark back again; observing, in conclusion, that when they 
are fairly acclimatised they are very hardy and desirable birds, which 
we can confidently recommend to the notice of amateurs in search of 
an ornamental and agreeable addition to their collections. They are 
exceedingly gentle and amiable, and may be caged with the tiniest 
Astrilds and all the lesser Parrakeets and Love-birds, without fear of 
danger accruing to the small fry from the really formidable-looking 
beaks of the Half-moon Parrakeets, which they are very expert in 
exercising upon anything of a vegetable nature that may chance to 
come in their way, so that they cannot be kept in any enclosure where 
it is desired to grow shrubs and trees. 
