TOO Keeping and /yreed'nig the (iold-hreastcd IVaxbill. 



I do not think, however, I need quote here my experiences 

 ot successful breeding- episodes, as it would be but a repetition 

 in different phaseology of Lucy Dutton's "ail-but " success 

 given above; therefore it will suffice to say that my successes 

 took place in a roomy, naturally planted garden-aviary, and that 

 tliey occurred in the late summer (August — October), and that 

 while they had young to feed they were foraging for insects 

 (mostly midges, small flies and aphides) the live-long day. That 

 ;il! the young hatched out, so far as 1 am aware, were fully 

 reared. Incubation, so far as I was able to check it, lasted 

 11-13 days. The young left the nest when from three to four 

 w ^eks old, and were fending for tliemselves about a fortnight 

 hiter. Nestling plumage has already been described to a given 

 j^oint. Further, though, the young males did not assume full 

 colour till after their first moult, there was soon a certain amount 

 cf colour development apparent. sufHcient to enable one to 

 distinguish the young males when they were from two to three 

 months old. 



J'oud : (iold-breasts are not diflticult to cater for; Indian millet, 

 millet sprays and green-food about meet their simple needs, 

 with, of course, the usual essentials, viz : water, grit and cuttle- 

 bone. When they are feeding young either preserved or live 

 ants' eggs (cocoons) should be supplied (live ants' eggs, of 

 course, should be supplied if in season. They will eat 

 mealworms, but if the aviary is roomy and contains growing 

 bushes and herbage, these will not be needed, as they will 

 capture innumerable small flies, midges, etc., for themselves. 

 Flowering and seeding grass is the green-food par excellence, 

 but all garden weeds in the flower and seed stage may be offered. 

 Superfluous blighty sprays from rose and fruit trees will be a 

 boon at breeding time. 



I have always found them reasonably hardy; abnormal 

 weather periods are trying to humans, birds and all life, and it 

 i*^ at these periods that their comfort should be specially seen 

 to. and their health carefully watched. T have always found 

 the exceptionally mild, muggy, wet winters more trying to 

 bird-life than hard frost and snow. Given a snug sleeping-place, 

 i.e., a weatherproof shelter and small nest receptacle to sleep in 

 enables this species usually to emerge triumphantly from the 

 weather conditions of an Fnglish winter. 



