108 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



Habitat, Orange Uiver to the Zambesi aaid Congo dis- 

 tricts and Uganda. 



Major .S. K. Clarke (The Ihix, 1904, p. 525) s(ab«« 

 that the h;i.bits (rf tiiis S|>ecies art* similar to those of 

 S. marshalli (the St. Helena Seed eater in it.s slightly 

 modified form) ; he describes the iris ats " dark brown ; 

 the beak and legs horn-coloTired," but in Layard's " Birds 

 of S. Africa " the feel are described as " flesh-coloured " ; 

 they probably resemble those of the Grey Singing finch 

 and are fleshy-horn in tint, or pure flesh-coloured in 

 fully aduilt birds. 



In Tlie Ibis for 1906, p. 353, . Mr. A. H. Evans 

 mentions ,S. (iiujuhiuiis among the birds observed by 

 him on the Mag-aliesberg Range, ;uid he says: — "We 

 liiid admirable opportunities of studying the habits and 

 listening to the not^^ of the species observed, and only 

 regretted that our time wa.-i so limited." Unfortunately 

 he has not, apparently, published the result of his study 

 fond atti?ntion to bird-notes, >o we must fain fall back 

 upon the experiences of aviculturists. 



In 1907 Mr. W. E. Te.ucheniaker bred the Yellow- 

 rumped Serin from birds imported from the Transvaal 

 the previous year. He has published an account of his 

 experiences in The Avicultural Magazine, N.s., Vol. V., 

 pp. 198-200. He tells us that " the three eggs in one 

 clutch were of a light blue ground colour and absolutely 

 unspotted. The other clutch had a warmer ground 

 colour, one egg being freely spotted with small brown 

 spots, the .second having one or two brown spots, and 

 the third no .spots at all." 



Birds liatche<l in a, warm indoor aviary were hatched 

 but not reared, but those hatched by birds expiosed to 

 the rigours of a .severe wijiter in an outdoor aviary were 

 reared successfully. Mr. Teechemaker attributes the 

 success of the birds outside to the fact that they were 

 able to procure insect food ; but I think pure air ha(d 

 far more to Jo with it, since Goldfinches even in an 

 indoor aviary often succeed in rearing their young 

 ■without the help of insect food, and many other Finches 

 which, in their wild state, would partly feed their 

 young upon insect food from their crops, have been 

 known to rear them in comparatively small cages upon 

 egg and bi.scuit alone. Undoubtedly the open-air 

 aviary :s the ideal enclosure for breeding birds in. 

 Himalayan or Rkd frontkd Seed-eater 

 {Serinus 2i>tsillus). 



General colouring above blackish-brown ; every 

 feather more or less broadly bordered with yellow: the 

 median and greater wing-coverts tipped with ashy 

 whitish, and the dista,! extremities of the secondaries 

 edged and fringed with the .-ame ; upper tail-covirts 

 black with broad ashy-white borders; tail-feather.s 

 blackish, faintly washed at base with yellow and edged 

 with whitish ; crown of head blackish witli the fore- 

 head orang<-re<l ; sides of head and the throat blackish ; 

 under surface of body golden yellow ; the breast spotted 

 with black; centre of abdomen white; sides and flanks 

 streaked with black ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 golden yellow ashy at ba.se; flights below dusky with 

 ashy inner margins; beak black with whitish gape and 

 base of upper mandible brownish ; iridcs blatkii-h-brown. 

 Female duller, the yellow colouring and frontal patch 

 paler. Habitat. "From the Cauca.sus and Northern 

 Persia to Turkestan, wintering to the southwand in Asia 

 Mmor as far as the I^banon and in the North-western 

 Himalayas" (Sharpe). 



Speaking of the Birds of the Caucasus {The Ibis 1883 

 p. 9), the late Henry Seebohm says:—" The Red-fronted 

 i?inch IS found throughout the steppes and in the 



rhododendron region, descending to the plains only in 

 winter." 



Jerdon tells us that, according to Hutton, who observed 

 it at -Mussooree, "it appeared to be always in pairs, 

 and, like our Siskin and Goldfinch, is very fond of 

 alighting upon the tall coar.se nettles which abound 

 there." Griffiths observed it clinging to and feeding 

 on thistles in flocks, and describes it as rather shy; 

 Adams, who saw it in flcK'ks at LadaJih, describes its 

 habits and call-note as " like those of the European 

 Redpoll." (See " Biixls of India," Vol. II., p. 411.) 



The following notes are from Hume's " Nest* and 

 Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd ed., Vol. II., pp. 155-156. 



"Colonel John Biddulph writes from Gilgit: — 'On 

 July 28th I had a nest brought me which my shikari 

 had been watching several days. He shot one of the 

 pair of old birds about the nest, which turned out to be 

 the male of M. pusitla. The nest contained three eggs, 

 perfectly fresh (and the number was apparently not 

 complete). In colour a dull s-tone-white, with small 

 red-brown spots dotted about the larger end. The nest 

 wais about 20 feet from the ground, in a cedar tree 

 {Jvnipenis exctlsa), neatly made of grass-fibres, and 

 lined thickly with sheep's wool, and matted on the 

 outside with soft bits of decayed wood so as to look like 

 bark of a tree.' 



" Major Wardlaw Ramsay says?, writing of Afghani- 

 stan : — ' Plentiful in the Hariab district, and remained 

 in flocks until the early part of June, when they com- 

 menced to breed. I found a nest on the Peiwar range, 

 which was placed near the extremity of a deodar branch 

 about 4ft. Ironi the ground; it was composed of dried 

 weeds and strips of bark, and lined with feathers and 

 goats' hair. Only one egg was in the ne.st, of a delicate 

 bluish white, speckled at the tliicker end with niinuta 

 reddish-brown spots.' 



" An egg oi this species, procured in Gilgit, is a 

 regular oval, slightly pointed towards the lesser end; 

 the shell is very thin and fine, but has almost no gloss. 

 The ground-colour is a delicate bluish-white, and ths 

 markings, which are gathered in a zone round the large 

 end, consist of a few blackish spots and a number of 

 specks and streaks of reddish brown. The egg measures 

 0.65 by 0.49." 



According to Russ this species was formerly imported 

 by the dealer Stader of Moscow, and from him it reached 

 the Berlin Aquarium, but since that time he says it has 

 not appeared in the bird-market. In 1903 two examples 

 reached the London Zoological Gardens. 



Alauio Finch {Alario alariu). 

 Head all round black with a while collar passing 

 round sides and bac-k of neck; back, rmnp, upper tail- 

 coverts, tail, wing-coverts, outer webs of tertials, edges 

 and lips of secondaries chestnut red ; remainder of wing 

 black; throat and centre of fore-chest bl.ick, continous 

 with a stripe formed by sublerminal black bars on 

 many of the inner feathers of the sides and flanks (vary- 

 ing in extent in different indiWduals) ; the tips of these 

 feathers and the central feathers of the hind part of 

 the breast and of the abdomen slightly washed with buff 

 or strongly with cinnamon; under tail-coverts either 

 white or cinnamon ; primaries below silky grey-black ; 

 secondaries similar, but with pale chocolite tips; tail 

 below also chocolate, axitlarnes and under wing- 

 coverts similarly coloured, the from border of wing 

 black ; beak greyish horn-colour, paler on lower man- 

 dible; feet slate-grey; irides brown. Female altogether 

 paler and greyer; the top of the head grev-brownish, 

 with indistinct dusky centres to feathers, the forehead 

 washed with rufous ; all the deep chestnut of the upper 



