350



Mr. A hen Silver



lias often been successfully accomplished by foster parents, in

the shape of Canaries, or in rarer instances by the parents them¬

selves ; but in the case of Bramble-Chaffinch hybrids it seems

that not only are Canaries (however fed) useless for the purpose,

but that when placed under the care of Idnnets, Bullfinches,

Greenfinches and other birds that feed their young whilst in the

nest, largely upon regurgitated seed, the young hybrids always

die. Miss Reeves eventually discovered “ friends in need ” to

meet the case in the shape of Robins, Hedge-sparrows and

Greater Tits, which readily undertake the duties of hatching the

eggs and fostering the young hybrids until they are about eight

days old, after which they are hand-reared upon green cater¬

pillars, aphides, etc. This lady, to whom lam much indebted for

many interesting details concerning her experiments, informed

me that the period of incubation is usually twelve days and that

she finds it better to use Bramblefinches as paternal parents, not

only because the resulting offspring are more beautiful, but

because male Bramblefinches are usually ready to fertilize eggs

by the time Chaffinch hens are laying the first or second batches ;

whereas by the time hen Bramblings are ready to lay, cock

Chaffinches have often commenced to moult or at least have lost

interest in domestic affairs. The method employed in obtaining

this cross, amounts to confining in a large garden aviary, twenty

or thirty hen Chaffinches paired accordingly; the eggs being

collected and the young reared in the manner described. Needless

to say many of these eggs are unfertile, and of those hatched, a

large percentage of the young, especially in the earlier experi¬

ments, died, owing principally to the difficulty of obtaining foster

parents that could supply suitable food. Since 1907, Miss Reeves

has to my knowledge reared to maturity at least twenty hybrids of

this cross and is, as far as I am aware, the only individual who has

been able to accomplish such a feat* and I believe I am correct in

stating that the first Canary-Bullfinch hybrid was also bred by

this lady.


Among small cage birds, probably no greater profligate

exists than hens of the domesticated race of (,Serums canarius ) ;

although many of the reputed crosses between this bird and



Mr. John Howe, of Dundee, bred five B-C. hybrids some six years ago.



