. The illustrated book of canaries and cage-birds, British and foreign . r more, and I have at present a Combasou beforeme who to my certain knowledge was as black as now eighteen months previously, and hasremained so. In the aviary this pretty little bird is lively and bold, perhaps a little quarrelsome, butwithout being dangerous to even the smallest foreign Finches, except in exciting their jealousyby singing to every female. To breed him successfully would require a temperature of about%%° to 90° Fahr., but to keep the Combasou simply as an ornamental inmate of the aviary hewill be found q
. The illustrated book of canaries and cage-birds, British and foreign . r more, and I have at present a Combasou beforeme who to my certain knowledge was as black as now eighteen months previously, and hasremained so. In the aviary this pretty little bird is lively and bold, perhaps a little quarrelsome, butwithout being dangerous to even the smallest foreign Finches, except in exciting their jealousyby singing to every female. To breed him successfully would require a temperature of about%%° to 90° Fahr., but to keep the Combasou simply as an ornamental inmate of the aviary hewill be found quite hardy, and ever lovely and in good condition. Abyssinia and the bordersof the Nile are the Combasous native home, where he apparently lives much after the mannerof our European Sparrows. Some travellers assert that he breeds between July and September,others say between January and March; some say his nest is in trees, others found it underthe thatch of roofs and in holes. The food and treatment are the same as other Whydah-birds or Finches, vide pages399, 404 CHAPTER XLVII. THE WEAVER-BIRDS. One of the most interesting families of foreign cage-birds which reach Europe is that of theWeaver-birds. Most of them are natives of Africa, a few species are found in Asia, and none inAmerica or Australia. The Weaver-birds are so called because their nests are constructedby a clever interlacing of fibres, roots, &c., by which a very curious and durable family mansionis formed. Instinct and necessity have made these birds wonderful architects. Natives of aland where the rays of a vertical sun alternate with tropical rains ; where monkeys, serpents,and all kinds of other enemies abound, the Weaver-bird has learnt to avoid these manifolddangers for his progeny; and consequently Weaver-birds abound in many parts of Africa,delighting the eye of the traveller as soon as he sets foot on the shore of the West Coastof Africa, and are ever present wherever he may wander in the interio
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