31 



Hybrids with the Canary hen have been several times 

 obtained. 



In the autumn of 1S95 I .succeeded in obtaining 

 two females from Mr. Swaysland : one of these was a 

 3'oung bird in good plumage and perfect health, which 

 I placed in an aviary with a male which had been 

 in my possession for some time. The male sang to the 

 hen, but she never attempted to build. The other 

 female was considered by Mr. vSwaysland to be a bird 

 which had recently nested in a state of freedom— he 

 came to this conclusion from the state of her plumage. 

 This bird was in very shabby condition, and, instead 

 of improving after I purchased her, she went from bad 

 to worse, until she was almost bare of feathers, and I 

 feared she suffered from some feather disease. How- 

 ever, about May, she moulted, and came into splendid 

 plumage. Shortly after this I obtained from Mr. G. C. 

 Swailes, in exchange for another bird, a remarkabl}^ 

 vigorous male Alario Finch, which I immediately 

 placed with this hen, in a good-sized indoor aviar\^ all 

 to themselves, and almost immediately had the 

 pleasure of seeing her begin building. The nest was 

 built in an open Canary nest-box with a perforated 

 zinc bottom, which I had hung up high on the wall at 

 the back of the aviar}'. The nest was a beautiful 

 little structure of hay, neatly lined with hair from a 

 common Canary nest-bag. I never saw the eggs, but 

 I believe that only two w^ere laid ; for two young were 

 hatched, and no eggs were left in the nest when I 

 examined it after the young had flown. 



The hen began to sit on the 7th of July (1896) and 

 hatched on the 19th or 20th. The young left the nest 

 on the morning of the 2nd of August, when, to my 

 great .surprise, I found them at the bottom of the 

 aviar3^ They could not fl\' for several da^'s after. 

 While the young were in the nest the parents partook 

 of hard-boiled egg and biscuit, and Abrahams' 



