Breeding of Hybrid Foreign Finches. 245 



as the Silverbill. but rather deeper brown. The young were 

 reared ahnost entirely on grass seeds and green food, mostly 

 fine grass. The old birds used to come down and pick amongst 

 the grass but seldom took the live ants' eggs which were thrown 

 down for general use. The parents looked after them for a long- 

 time after they were reared. Quite late they started nesting 

 again, and. I thought they were sitting as the hen had laid, but 

 one very cold wet morning I picked her up off the ground almost 

 dead and egg bound, and unfortunately she died before we could 

 do anything for her. I was very sorry as I had hoped for some 

 more of these pretty little birds. The old Chestnut-breast is 

 quite lively and I will try and provide him with a similar mate 

 next year. He used to dance and sing to one of his own young 

 ones later on. 



-<^ 



Breeding of Hybrid Magpie Mannihin X Silverbill. 



By Herbert E. Bright. 



At one time, a year or so ago, I had bred so many Magpie 

 Mannikins that I got rather tired of them and disposed of all but 

 one pair. That winter the hen died, so, not wishing to be entirely 

 without a pair, I bought a hen, which I saw advertised, and 

 turned the two birds out in the large aviary in the spring expect- 

 ing to breed a lot more. 



They went about together at first, but a little later joined 

 company with a hen Silverbill and a hen Bronze-wing and there 

 was a great deal of nest building and squabbling, in which all 

 four used to take part, both the hens and both the cocks disput- 

 ing for possession of the various nests, so that I thought nothing 

 could come of it all. 



My man told me one evening he thought he could get me 

 a Silverbill cock so I told him to go and bring it. Next day we 

 turned it out and waited to see what would happen. The Silver- 

 bills took no notice of each other and I began to fear we had 

 made matters worse and introduced further complications in the 

 shape of another hen. This proved to be the case, as I later on 



