20I 



weavers were two of the rarer Whydabs, the Red- 

 collared (^P eiithetria ardens) and the large Cape Why- 

 dah {Chei'a procne), both in full colour, though the 

 latter, his owner said, has grown no long tail-feathers 

 either this year or last ; the remaining birds were 

 Red, Green, Red-headed, and Yellow-billed Cardinals, 

 Saflfron-finches, and Pekin Robins, all of which added 

 their share of colour to this brightly-coloured living 

 picture. 



The two other large aviaries contained, one a 

 number of smaller foreign seedeaters, the other half-a- 

 dozen Rosella Parrakeets, Yellow and Green Budgeri- 

 gars, and a few odd weavers which had been expelled 

 from the Weavers' Aviary, either on account of their 

 sex or for various misdemeanours and assaults. 



The Rosellas breed regularly every year, and the 

 present party consists of the old pair and this year's 

 famil3^ This is not the only success in breeding 

 which Mr. Dart has had this season. He had flying 

 a nest of Black - headed Gouldians, but the hen has 

 unfortunately just died after laying another clutch, 

 a nest of three hybrids between Grey and Green 

 Singing-finches, (the father of which by the way is 

 an extraordinary singer), as well as another lot of 

 eggs almost due to hatch on which the hen was 

 sitting well, and two six-weeks old Saffron-finches 

 hatched and reared amid the crowd and turmoil of the 

 Weavers' Aviary. The Singing-finch hybrids resemble 

 their Grey Singing-finch father more than their mother, 

 but are rather smaller than he is, and have a dis- 

 tinct white eyebrow and other head-markings of the 

 Icterus, and a pale yellow rump, which however is 

 only visible when the birds fly, —in fact they are very 



