227 



Lesser Lemon-crested Cockatoo : This species is too well known 

 to call for any lengthy comment here. The pair under notice, though still 

 showing a few pen feathers, were otherwise faultless and spotlessly clean, 

 which is the case with the whole series, with the exception of one or two 

 new arrivals. The plumage is white; crest sulphur yellow ; the base of the 

 feathers of the head, neck, quills and tail feathers are sulphur-yellow; 

 the ear coverts are distinctly yellowish. Total length 13 inches; tail 4$; 

 bill ii. It is found in the Celebes, Buton and Togian Islands. 



LEADBEATER Cockatoo: Two pairs represent this brightly clad 

 species, the plumage of a delicate blush-piukish-white hue when the bird is 

 at rest becomes of quite a warm rosy hue when the plumage is held loose, 

 while its crest of vermilion, yellow and rosy white, is beautiful indeed when 

 erected. Its total length is 11 inches; tail 6^ ; bill i|. It ranges over the 

 whole of Southern Australia, and according to Gould in his "Birds of Aus- 

 tralia," it prefers the wooded slopes of sides of the rivers of the interior. The 

 female differs from the male in having a smaller but more brightly coloured 

 crest, but the rosy or salmon tint of the plumage of her under surface is 

 not intense as that of the male. 



(To be continued). 



Brecoing Crimson ffmcbes in a Cage 



(Neochmia phaeton). 

 By H. Hetley, M.B. 

 Some of our members may possibly be interested in an account of our 

 pair of Australian Fire-finches (Neochmia phaeton). They were purchased 

 in April and put into a cage in the sitting-room, where they began trying to 

 build a nest next day. After filling two boxes with ha}- they took 110 

 further interest. Being moved into a larger cage (5ft. x 2| x i\) in another 

 room, the cock built a very compact flask-shaped nest of hay, imitation 

 cowhair and feathers. The hen laid two eggs, one on the floor and one in 

 the uest. They sat on this single one for about a fortnight but it was not 

 fertile, and after a while they deserted it. Nothing daunted, the cock com- 

 menced re-lining the nest, and after some days we found them sitting 

 again, this time very closely and about a fortnight later we heard young 

 ones " cheeping." In three weeks time five young ones came down, and 

 for two or three days the parents fed them very well, then the cock com- 

 menced chasing them furiously, so was removed, but the hen though 

 occasionally feeding them also started attacking them in a very violent 

 manner. The little ones being quite unable to feed themselves we put them 

 into a large cage divided in two with a wired space, in the partition, with 

 the bars just wide enough to admit of the parents feeding them through the 

 wires. This they fortunately condescended to do and the birds are now 



