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•' of which was a neatly-rounded entrance-hole. It was 

 " hardly finished however before a pair of Cordon 

 " Bleus seized and partially demolished it ; the hen 

 " which happened to be sitting at the time did not 

 "seem to mind a bit, but I noticed that the cock 

 *' immediately began to busily attempt to repair the 

 ** damage. Herr Hald, to whom I was lamenting my 

 " disappointment, advised me to catch and remove 

 *' the other birds from the aviary, so that the Fire- 

 " finches might have a better chance of successfully 

 " rearing a brood ; I was unable to follow his advice 

 *' that day, so I postponed the operation until next 

 *' morning, but I regret to say that when the morning 

 " came I let the opportunity slip. The morning after 

 '' when I entered the aviary, I saw at once that all 

 " three birds were away from the nest, and when I 

 " looked more closely I saw that this had been coni- 

 " pletely destroyed, and that on the ground in the 

 " sand lay five partly incubated eggs. These were 

 *' not all the same size, and no doubt both hens had 

 " contributed to the clutch. In shape they were 

 *' rather elongated, and in colour white delicately 

 " tinged with pink. I was delighted however to see 

 "the cock had at once commenced to rebuild the 

 " same nest and was already hard at work there, 

 " while the two hens seemed not at all distressed at 

 " the calamity." 



Dr. Russ then goes on to say that Herr Duhring kindly 

 sent him the birds he writes abont, together with a specimen 

 (for comparison) of the Dark -red Firefinch, the differences 

 between the two being, according to our author, as follows : 

 The red in the new birds is by no means dark 

 crimson, but distinctly a bright scarlet with a de- 

 cidedly yellowish tinge. Then the colour of their 



