So fowls sometimes refuse to eat maize, but on seeing others eat it, they do the same and become excessively fond of it.

Many persons have found that their yellow crocuses were eaten by sparrows, while the blue, purple, and white coloured varieties were left untouched; but Mr.Tegetmeier, who grows only these latter colours, found that after two years the sparrows began to attack them, and thereafter destroyed them quite as readily as the yellow ones; and he believes it was merely because some bolder sparrow than the rest set the example.

On this subject Mr.Charles C.Abbott well remarks: "In studying the habits of our American birds--and I suppose it is true of birds everywhere--it must at all times be remembered that there is less stability in the habits of birds than is usually supposed; and no account of the habits of any one species will exactly detail the various features of its habits as they really are, in every portion of the territory it inhabits."[27] Mr.Charles Dixon has recorded a remarkable change in the mode of nest-building of some common chaffinches which were taken to New Zealand and turned out there.

He says: "The cup of the nest is small, loosely put together, apparently lined with feathers, and the walls of the structure are prolonged for about 18 inches, and hang loosely down the side of the supporting branch.

The whole structure bears some resemblance to the nests of the hangnests (Icteridae), with the exception that the cavity is at the top.