on the Zebra finch.



31



hens have now hatched for the fourth time this season ; in addition,

shamas have twice hatched but not reared.


I am promised, by a friend in Siam, a collection of weavers

and bulbuls, some of which would appear to be new to aviculture,

but will refer to these upon their safe arrival.—R. A. H.]



THE ZEBRA FINCH.


Taniopygia castanotis.


By Dr. A. G. Butler.


In the Magazine for September 1915, Mr. L. Lovell-Keays

observes :—“ Zebra-finches die off in aviaries too. If it were not so

they would soon be as common as larks and linnets.” Of course he

means that they soon die off, but I think he should have said “ in

unsheltered outdoor—or in all-wire ornamental indoor aviaries”;

although, as will be seen presently, it was in one of the latter that

my last Zebra-finch beat the record for longevity.


I bought my first Zebra-finches I believe about 1890 and

bred the first youngster in one of my bird-room aviaries ; a year or

so afterwards I turned out my stock into flight-cages of about two

feet cubic measurement and therein I bred a few more, but not

many. Later I liberated three pairs into a covered indoor aviary

16 feet in length, about 6 feet wide, under a rather lofty slanting

roof of Hartley’s plate-glass. For several years one side of this

aviary was open to the air, merely being protected in winter by a

screen of canvas running upon rings, but in severe winters the

aviary was so cold that, whatever its occupants may have thought

about it, I sometimes found it anything but pleasant to enter it; so

eventually I had the outer side glazed and introduced a radiator in

the outside passage to render it more comfortable.


The transfer of my Zebra-finches to this aviary was so

eminently satisfactory in its results, that I never again wished to

keep them in cages : they bred all the year round and the youngsters,

when only eight weeks old, began to set up housekeeping on their

own account; yet although these very precocious infants built, laid

eggs and sometimes even hatched an egg' or two, I don’t think they



