104 Correspondence. 



ahly interest many B.N. readers : 



" I am glad to tell you I have at last succeeded in finding 

 " for you the "N.-P. " Pin-tailed finches ; quite by chance I was visiting* 

 " a distant Siame»;e village to find a man to whom to give a contract 

 " a distant Siamese village to find a couple of these birds recently caught 

 " being played with by the native children there. It was quite a bit of 

 " luck, because, according to the natives, these birds are migratory, and 

 " they say they have not seen them in these parts for the past many years, 

 " an<i they only come just about the time the paddy is being harvested, 

 " so the time of my return fitted in just right for them ; they seem to 

 " have all disappeared again now. .At the time I put all the villagers 

 " on catching them, .and succeeded in getting about 500. I have now got 

 " these in an aviary I put up here and I'll send them to you in batches of 

 " three or four cage? at a time containing 40—50 each. They are certainly a 

 " very gorgeous sight all together with their scarlet flame breasts, green 

 " anl blue heads and backs, you would like to see them. I'll keep 

 " the aviary going, &nd endeavour to h'ive a lot also for your next visit', 

 " which I Iiope is going to be this year. 



" They seem to live/ n captivity very well. I get few deaths 

 " now although I did get h.ilf-a-do/en or so a day to start with they eat 

 " no end, of pladdy, and an essential seems to be to give them plenty 

 " ot clear water in which to bathe ; they love ducking about in it, and 

 ' 1 havi hat' a pii>i>e\ cement place made for it in the aviary. The 

 ' top of t he aviary i^ covered with cc)roa-nut palms, and some inside 

 ' too, for roostjng—they like plenty of shafle. I have got some travel- 

 ' ling cages ready made, and I have mad* arrangements for the Chi.T 

 ■' Choo (Trade Manager) of the Chinese steamer to look after the bird^ 

 "as far as Penang, the present difficulty is to get hold of a suitable 

 " person in Penang to take care of them, and make arrangements for 

 " shipping home. I have been in correspondence with two, one after the 

 " f)ther, an<l they do not seem to care to take on the job, hut a third 

 " with whom 1 am iri correspondence now I think will do it. They'll 

 " need constant attentiot., and I'm telling this man to get hold of the 

 " butcher of one of the regular home-going direct boats, give hin. a sov- 

 " ereign, and tell him there will be another two for him in Lundon pro- 

 " viding he gets as many birds home as possible safe. A strange feature 

 " about the birds I have here is, that until recently they have been 

 " acting as decoys to others of tlie same kind and we have caught' 

 " cjuite a number from outside in this way." 



I have received n small consignment of the above (33 cocks and 

 100 hens). They were shipped in a, private cabin^ and well treated en 

 roinr. They have arrived in the pink of condition^ and the losses during 

 the voyage horrid were less than five per cent. There has not been ^ 



