292 



Things looked very promising at one time, as every pair laid and in- 

 cubated, except the Bronze Maunikins and the Bustard Quail. The Ben- 

 galese which both sang and made up to any bird that would listen to them 

 (the cock Yellow-rump seemed to take their fancy most) at last got an egg 

 in their nest somehow, but they failed to hatch it through not sitting 

 close enough or other reasons. 



The Yfj,i,ow-rumped Mannikins twice hatched out, three and two 

 from two clutches of four eggs each, but on each occasion they pulled the 

 3'ouug out of the nest by the wing or scalp, and left them to die in various 

 parts of the aviary, just as they were getting their feathers. The nests were 

 very strong and placed among the steins of the Bamboo, just undei the 

 green top, rather large, long shaped, with a small opening near the top, 

 mostly composed of bamboo leaves bound together with grass. 



The Masked Grass-finches managed to bring one out of a nest 

 which was in a box in the house, but it was ill at the time and died a few days 

 afterwards, owing to another bird which left the nest a day before, July 30th. 



An interesting Hybrid. What this young bird was I could not 

 make out for a long time; it was unlike any bird in the aviary, and quite 

 different from the other which died, this one getting the lion's share of the 

 food and attention. The upper parts were dark biscuit brown ; top of the 

 head darker; tail blackish; primaries darker than back ; throat and chest 

 light-brown, nearly white on the belly; legs pinkish brown; beak lead 

 colour. A little later description which was taken at the end of September, 

 begins to indicate the parentage of the bird. Beak flesh colour; legs and 

 toes brown; mask beginning to show ; black band behind the legs, rather 

 narrower than in the Masked Grass-finch. On the flanks in front of the 

 legs area few short black bars; on the sides of the breast a few pinkish 

 bands, just a shade darker than the ground colour ; the remainder of colour- 

 ing is much like the first description. It has the song of the Masked Grass- 

 finch. Now, January nth, I have the bird in a cage and am certain that it 

 is a hybrid Cherry Finch x Masked Grassfinch. The beak now has a 

 yellowish tinge down the middle of the upper mandible from the base to the 

 tips runs a narrow baud, almost a ridge, mottled-brown in colour, like the 

 Cherry Finch. The shape and size of the beak is otherwise like the Cheny 

 Finch. At the base, on each side of the lower mandible, is a circular 

 orange-yellow patch which does not seem to increase; the bars upon the 

 breast and flanks show the Cherry Finch parentage; the wings remain 

 brownish, blackish at the tips ; the two central tail feathers are longer than 

 the rest and show the slender points like the Masked Finch. At a little 

 distance one would not notice that there was any difference between this 

 bird and an ordinary Masked Finch. My Cherry Finch sat, but while I was 

 away the nest and that of the Masked Finch (a second nest), were destroyed 

 sol had no young Cherries to compare the hybrid with. It seems rather 

 curious that the Masked Finch parentage should show so strongly now in a 



