Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/310

260 pointed a finger. Immediately the Wagtail rushed excitedly across, and pecked the outstretched finger; then turned, and watched for some other person to do the same. Thus it rushed from one to another until it was tired of the fun, when it returned to its cage to rest. My hand-reared Jay is as playful as a puppy, and doubtless, if instructed by an experienced showman, might have been taught many tricks; but I never care to see any bird do strange things unless it does them for its own pleasure.

The notes uttered by my Wagtail would have puzzled as well as astonished a student of wild birds, so many and varied were they. The tone was changed so as clearly to express glee, anger, expostulation, pleading, fear; they were all call-notes of a kind, but most of them I never heard from a wild Wagtail. The song was very sweet and varied, more like that of the Swallow than of any other British bird.

The nidification of many foreign birds being imperfectly known, it is useful for the aviculturist not only to watch the behaviour of birds nesting in aviaries, but to save and blow infertile, addled, or deserted eggs, carefully marking them with the name of the species, and the date at which they were laid. It is true that the eggs of many imported birds are white, and differ chiefly in size, proportional dimensions, polish, &c, as, for instance, those of the Waxbills, Mannikins, Grass Finches, typical Weavers (Ploceus, but not Pyromelæna); the whole of the Doves and Parrots; yet to those who do not know them, they are of scientific interest, as representing part of the life-history of the species.