Identifier: birdsihavekeptin00gree (find matches)
Title: Birds I have kept in years gone by : with original anecdotes and full directions for keeping them successfully
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: Greene, William Thomas
Subjects: Cage birds
Publisher: London : L. Upcott Gill
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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luded to go and do likewise. Shortly afterwards I procured a pair, and turned theminto a small conservatory that had nothing in it but an oldand barren grape-vine. jN^o sooner were they released fromthe small travelling-cage in which I had brought them fromCovent Garden, than they darted up among the vine leaves,where the little cock blew his tiny trumpet with unwontedvigour. Well, I have already related the history of this littlecouple elsewhere, and must pass on to other matters, pre-mising that since then I have had a good number of thesecharming birds in my possession, and have found them to beas hardy and docile as they are pretty. The male Zebra, or Chesnut-eared Finch, scientificallyAmaclina castanotis, in French le diamant Zelre^ or U diamanta moustache, in German der Zelrajinh, is, as may be gatheredfrom the above introductory remarks, an agreeable and ex-tremely desirable inmate of the aviary. In length he measuresabout four and a half inclies, of which one and a half belong
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THE Z E B E A, on C H E S N U T-E A R E D ¥ INCH. The Zebra Finch, 109 to the tail. He is rather a difficult bird to describe on accountof his plumage being so varied, and made up of such a varietyof tints. To begin, his head is ash grey, his wings and backbrownish grey, the tips of the flight feathers being almostblack. His cheeks, marked at their anterior aspect by anarrow line of black, that gives the bird somewhat theappearance of wearing a moustache, are bright chesnut; thetail is dark grey, and the long upper tail coverts are dottedwith round white spots. The throat is white, but as eachfeather is edged with a narrow black line, this part of theplumage presents a greyish undulated or zebrafied appearance:in some specimens the lower part of the throat is quite black,in consequence of the increased breadth of the little blacklines. The breast and belly are white, and the sides are red-dish purple, dotted with numerous white spots. The beak iscoral red, and the feet and legs reddi

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