2l8 



during the night, and so escaped te,niporarily were promptly 

 scratched np in the morning b}' the vigilant bantams that 

 mothered the little pheasants aud quails. 



Dennesies lardarius, the bacon beetle, an insect that is 

 much dreaded, and not without reason, b}' furriers and 

 taxidermists, affords excellent pabulum for all kinds of 

 insectivorous birds, particularly when it has reached maturity 

 and walks the world in beetle form. It is easy to breed in a 

 box containing rabbit skin or feathers. The larvae are repulsive 

 looking creatures, but the little brown beetles are rather 

 pretty than otherwise. 



I share Mr. Farrar's horror of the wasp grub, as well as of 

 its parents, and leave both severely alone. 



w. T. Greene. 



lEMtorial motes. 



GOUIvDIAN FINCHES:— We have been particularly 

 fortunate in being able to print, within so short a period, the 

 three contributions from the Rev. C. D. Farrar, Dr. Greene and 

 Capt. Perreau, which, taken together, form an almost complete 

 monograph of these charming birds as aviary captives. Capt. 

 Perreau apologises for the length of his paper, but such minute- 

 ness of observation and lucidity of description as he exhibits are 

 the very essence of true science, and need no apology. His state- 

 ment as to the mouth wattles of the nestlings being two of 

 them turquoise blue and the other yellow on either side is 

 especially valuable, since it is the outcome of careful observa- 

 tion of living {} and dead) birds during two breeding seasons. 

 My footnote to Mr. Farrar's article to the effect that they were 

 emerald green as to two and blue as to the other was derived 

 from Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's " Wonders of the Bird World " (page 

 115), where the coloration is so described, evidently in error. 

 I have since looked up the matter, and find that Dr. Sharpe 

 (or his proof reader) had misinterpreted his authority, for I 

 see that in the December number of the Avicultural Dlagazine 

 for 189S — not the November one as stated— which I have just 

 obtained a sight of, Dr. Butler gives the colours in accordance 

 with Capt. Perreau, except that where the latter says "bright" 

 yellow Dr. Butler says "pale" yellow. This difference how- 

 ever is of no great account, because Dr. Butler's specimens 

 were dead, and the yellow would naturally have somewhat 

 faded. 



