Freely Imported Species and theh- Treatment. 7 



a male Zebra Finch did enter tlie nest while she was gathering 

 IDrovender for her chicks, l)Ut she saw him enter, and she tlew 

 straight in, did not pause to alight on the front perch, Mr. 

 Zebra came out in a great hurry, v/bile Mrs. Cuttnroai jjut 

 her head out of the entrance of " Ci.tthroat Castle " with her 

 beak full of feathers I 



The young, up to the time of leaving the nest were reared 

 so far as I could observe, on dried ants' " eggs " — every hour 

 a tablespoonful of these was scattered over the aviary floor, and 

 till these were all gathered up and her precious chicks fed, Mrs. 

 Cutthroat was busy indeed. 



The old birds thrived on canary, white millet, spray 

 millet and kibbled oats, with greenfood, cuttlebone, and an 

 occasional insect. They never took soft food, and only partook 

 of the dried ants' " eggs " when young were in the nest — the 

 young after they left the nest were fed entirely on seed and 

 greenfood. These three birds remained in my possession for 

 four years. Cutthroats are really, though so common, hand- 

 some and interesting birds. I have always found these birds 

 quiet and inoffensive, though well able to take care of them- 

 selves in any company. 



While on Cutthroat topics I should like to digress and 

 ask some of our members to try crossing this species with the 

 Ked-headed Finch (A. erythrocephala), a very handsome hybrid 

 is the result, the males of which possess both the ruby 

 collaret and the red -head and in size are about intermediate 

 between the two species. According to the late Dr. K. iluss, 

 the hybrids are fertile, so that with a little perseverance 

 a permanent variety should soon be the result, especially if 

 several members made the attempt, and exchanged young, so 

 as to secure unrelated pairs. I purpose myself attempting 

 again to get the cross, and if successful, then to try the fol- 

 lowing season to breed from the hybrids. The chief difficulty 

 is, that the E,ed-headed Finches are bad parents, both lag 

 to incubation duties and feeding their young, but either Java 

 Sparrows or Cutthroats would hatch and rear if a transference 

 of the respective clutches could be effected without too much 

 disturbance of the respective pairs. 



To be continued. 



