Some /'inches J have Kept. 



35 



at the dish. 1 have, however, found dried ants' cocoons a 

 great help in the rearing- of the youni;-. as also would be live ones 

 when these were available. When the Ribbon Finches are 

 feeding young I scatter some of these upon the ground, and 

 both parents are soon busy picking them up and making- 

 journeys to and from the nest — ants' cocoons appear to supply 

 them with the needful for the successful upbringing of their 

 young, and at the same time are apparently not too stimulating. 



Of the numberless nests that have been constructed in 

 my aviary only two of them have been built in bushes ; all the 

 others have been in boxes or husks, and mostly under cover. 

 The two natural nests were huge, untidy, globular construc- 

 tions, with an entrance hole at the front near the top. Built 

 entirely with grass and hay, and lined internally with any 

 feathers they could get hold of. 



Even in a very large avairy I have not found 't to answer 

 t(; keep two pairs in the same enclosure. The dominant pair 

 cid all the nesting, the others got no chance. 



The Long-tailed Grassfinch (Poephila acuticauda). 

 This beautiful, though not gorgeously coloured, Australian is 



also fairly well known to most aviculturists, and many of us 

 have had the pleasure of seeing it successfully breed in our 

 aviaries. There are two Australian finches, which one may 

 almost describe as being as alike as two peas, viz : the Parson 

 Finch (P. cincta) and the Long-tailed Grassfinch (P. acuticauda) 

 — they are alike as to colour and form save in two particulars — 

 the beak of the Parson is black, that of the Long-tail being led, 



