104 Practical Bird Keeping. — I. The Culture of Finches.


all these birds thrive without insect-food With these general

remarks respecting food we may for the present leave that subject

and pass on to the housing of finches.


Undoubtedly, like most other birds, these also do best

when kept in spacious aviaries having both an indoor and out¬

door compartment; the indoor portion should be fitted up with

natural branches the walls being partly decorated with nesting

receptacles of various kinds—old straw-hats with a round hole

near the edge of the crown and tacked to the wall through the

rim so as to leave the hole at the highest point, cigar nest-boxes,

converted travelling Hartz-cages, ordinary square Canary nest-

boxes, wicker-cages with the door removed, large Weaver-birds’

nests, or any other appliance suitable for finches to build in.


If delicate birds are kept, this inner compartment should

be provided with hot-water pipes and sliding panels to shut it off

from the outer flight during the winter months, the birds being

all driven inside in the autumn and allowed egress again only

with the coming of warm weather ; but it is better for beginners

not to attempt to keep any but hardy birds, passing on to the

more tender species when they have gained experience. If the

outer compartment or flight is sufficiently large, it is better for it

to be as wild and natural as possible, bushes, trees and creepers

being grown all over it with the exception of a central more or

less winding path for the convenience of the owner. In such an

aviary many finches will nest in the shrubbery without difficulty

and often without the owner’s knowledge provided that soft food

containing egg, dried ants’ cocoons, etc., with chickweed, are

supplied daily, the parents finding sufficient small insects, cater¬

pillars and spiders amongst the grass and bushes around them.


I have found it far more difficult to breed finches in cages

than in aviaries, although some aviculturists have had the opposite

experience; but there are a few common species which can

generally be depended upon to reproduce their kind under either

condition, such as the Saffron-finch, Java Sparrow, Ribbon-finch,

Zebra-finch, Bengalee and Sharp-tailed finch ; the Grey and

Green Singing-finches will also build and hatch their young in

cages and have been known to rear them : I see no reason why

all the Serins should not be bred in cages although I have not



