usical
performances are not confined to the males.

After several days of retirement, the cardinal plucked up spirit to
resume his annoyance of Virginia, and for a few nights a queer sort of
game was played by the two, explain it who can. If the barrier between
the cages was removed after the outside doors were shut for the night,
he at once went to her cage and to the middle perch. Virginia, on the
upper perch, waited till he reached that spot, then dropped to the
floor, slipped through the door into his cage, and went to the upper
perches there, where she hopped back and forth, while he did the same in
her cage. Suddenly, after a few moments, down he came again through the
door to his own middle perch, when instantly, as before, she retreated
into her cage. Thus they went on an hour at a time; he apparently
following her from one cage to another, and she declining to occupy the
same apartment with him. Occasionally it was not so calm; he lost his
temper, or grew tired of trying to please; once or twice, without
warning, he lowered his head, looked ugly, and fairly burst into her
cage and flung himself at her. She dived under or bounded over a perch,
any way to escape him, and took refuge in the other cage.

This could not go on long; the cardinal lost interest in everything,
took to moping, and at last died,--disappointed affection, shall we say,
or what? Virginia was relieved; she sang more and in a louder tone,
hopping around her cage with a seed in her mouth, flying through the
room, or splashing in the bath; in fact she was bubbling over with song
all the time, as if she were so happy she could not keep still. She paid
her daily visits to the cages, forcing the robin to take an outing,
which he did not care to do while moulting and not very sure of his
powers.

Many birds show emotions by raising the feathers on different parts of
the body, but this bird was remarkable in the expression of her crest
alone. When she peeped into a strange cage, and was somewhat uncertain
of her reception, the crest laid flat down, her very head seemed to
shrink; she stepped in at the door, excited, for it might be peace and
it might be war; the feathers rose and fell alternately; if suddenly
startled, the crest sprang to its highest point; and when singing, or
passing peacefully about the room, it dropped carelessly back on her
head.

Virginia was allowed a week's solitary enjoyment of the two cages, and
then one day a new tena