Practical Bird Keeping .—/. The Culture of Finches. 105


myself been successful with them. Our British Goldfinch will

breed both in cage and aviary ; I have myself bred it in the

latter enclosure and have bred mules between it and a Canary in

a large cage.


This brings me to another point with regard to the indoor

culture of finches and indeed of all birds in close confinement;

none of them should be permanently kept in cages which are

too small for them to use their wings as freely as their legs, or to

indulge in a bath whenever they are inclined to do so. Nothing

is more conducive to the health of a bird than plenty of natural

exercise, and cleanliness combined with fresh air.


The small stuffy cages formerly in use with seed and water

hung outside and no exercise beyond a monotonous pendulum¬

like hop from upper to lower perch were most injurious to the

health of their inmates, and more especially when their cages were

hung up in a close gas-heated room and were not frequently

cleaned out. I have found a cage about three feet long, eighteen

inches high and eighteen inches from front to back, open only in

front and with a central sliding door, none too large for a pair of

small finches, if one has any wish to breed from them. There

should be a metal tray sliding in from the front, a nest box in the

centre upon the back wall close to the roof of the cage, a perch

from front to back high up near each end and a pan of water on

one side of the door, a pan of seed on the other. When breed¬

ing a small pan of soft food should be added and green food

stuck through the wires near one of the perches. Hygienic

fountains are cleaner than open pans, but the birds cannot wash

in them and if both are supplied the birds, like human babies,

will always drink from their bath.


Some aviculturists have been successful in breeding the

commoner Waxbills in cages, but with me they never attempted

to build excepting iti a good-sized aviary and even then I never

succeeded in getting them to hatch their eggs. The same is true

of most of the Mannikins, though they are more ready to build

and sit than the Waxbills but are so nervous that with the least

alarm they spring up from the nest, kicking their eggs right and

left in their excitement.


According to the late Dr. Karl Russ the Waxbills require

living ants’ cocoons when feeding their young, but in a large



