46 Aviary JS'otes and Episodes — 1912. 



I left town soon after ihis date, so am unable to give 

 any further details as io duration of incubation, etc. The 

 young were umoi'luaaieiy murdered shortly after leaving the 

 nest by some other inhabitant of the aviary. 



Cuban Finches {thotiipara canoi a) : I only purchasecl 

 the hen of this pair in lieptember and she was far from robust 

 on her arrival; however, she soon picked up and to my great 

 surprise started llymg around with nesting material about a 

 week after her arrival. 



Shortly afterwards with the assistance of the cock she 

 constructed, in a thick bush, a very neat dome -shaped nest 

 with side entrance and lined within with moss and feathers. 

 Three eggs were laid, spotted thickly at the larger end with 

 rusty -brownish spots forming a complete ring; the I'emaindcj- 

 of the surface having occasional faint spots of a similar col- 

 our; ground colour behig greenish blue. The hen sat steadii;y 

 some sixteen days when I removed the egg.i and found two 

 were infertile, while the third contained a fully developed 

 chick which would doubtless have hatched in due course but 

 for my interference. 



The birds however went to nest almost ac once in the 

 same nest merely contenting themselves with adding a few 

 more feathers to the lining. On this occasion only two eggs 

 were laid and I rather despaired of their coming to anything 

 as the birds did not sit nearly so well, being frequently off 

 the nest for long periods. One egg duly hatched however, 

 but though I did not keep any accurate record of the length 

 of incubation, 1 am absolutely positive that it lasted well over 

 the 12th or even 14th day. Yet I have seen it stated on 

 good authority that the incubation period of these birds is 12 

 days! .(Weather and steadiness of individual pairs cause 

 some little variation in the incubation period.— Ed.). It 

 would be interesting to have this point cleared up by the evi- 

 dence of others who have kept this species, for I have no 

 doubt from the appearance of tiie chick in the first clutch that 

 it would have liatched out on the next, or 17th day. 



The youngster throve well, being reared chielly ujpon 

 insectile mixture and a fair quantity of mealwoiins, and left 

 the nest on the 22nd day. 



It is now about y weeks old and is still fed by its 



