112 



lOREION BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



m'Uet. During the first two or three days they washed 

 almost incessantly, so that whenever I looked at them 

 I was sure to see one or two bediaggled-looking, seated 

 ii.dividuals. 



■ By the end of the first week my birds were clean, 

 though ragged, and five of them aprpeared to be in 

 excellent health. Seeini; them eating worms which nad 

 ciawled from below their water-pan. I dug some up and 

 offeivd tliem ; they sreaied miicli j)leased and quarrelled 

 for them. I also fi.und that they were very glad to get 

 caterpilbrs and spi<'ers. 



'■ Shortly afterwards, Mr. Williams called lipon me, 

 and seemed gratified to find the Grosbeaks well and 

 ccr.tented. In the course of conversation, he unfor- 

 tunately told me tliat, in Canada, the favourite food of 

 tl e Piiie Grosbeak con.sisted nf berries of the mountain 

 ash. Next morning, I put a bunch of these berries into 

 the avian,', and two of the birds immediately flew down 

 aiid devoured them. By the evening both birds were 

 staggering about as if frightfully drunk ; ivhen they 

 Hew towards a perch they missed it and fell heavily to 

 the ground. If I entered' the aviary they seemed scared 

 almost out of their witis, although naturally they are 

 th^ tamest and most gentle birds I ever had, utterly 

 devoid of fear; now they dashed wildly and blindly 

 against the wires, fell to the ground, staggered up and 

 flew ofi' again madly; they had constant diarrhcea, were 

 unable to see their see<l, tumbled into the water, had 

 fit.5 every few minutes, and after two or three days of 

 misery ilied. It is, therefore, clear that berries of the 

 mountain ash are deadly poison to captive Pine Gros- 

 beaks. 



" With August, came heavy and almost incessant rains, 

 and this did not .''eem to suit my Canadian birds, so that 

 by the end of the month a third liad died in a rapid 

 decline ; it was a young male in hen plumage." 



My birds coniplettd their moult in September, when 

 a. young male died and was stripped of feathers by the 

 survivors ; later on they also died, fronr which I con- 

 cluded that our climate was too wet for Canadian birds. 



The Pine Grosbeak is, without e.xception, the tamest 

 and most confiding of all the Firrches; if you hold out 

 your linger to him he will touch it with his toiigue but 

 never bite, though, witlr his formidable beak he could 

 give one a very unpleasant nip if he chose. If my birds 

 got a sunflower s^^ed jammed in the upper mandible, they 

 would let me hook it oirt with a finger-nail. With 

 plenty of space their disputes wit-h one another consist, 

 like those of our Bullfinch, in making grimaces. The 

 call-note is cer, eer. and tliey ute it when running along 

 the side of the aviary, following their master and asking 

 him for a dainty. They look liie Bullfinches, but are aiS 

 large as Blackbirds. 



Mr. W. H. St. Quintin bred the Pine Grosbeak in 

 one of his aviaries in 1906 (vide Jriinltural Mmjazinr, 

 N.S., Vol. rV., p. 285). I do not know whether his were 

 Kurnpean or Amei-icaii birds. 



Dr. Ruiss speaks of the price of this species in Ger- 

 many .as extremely variable ; he says that Gleitzrnann 

 would not part with a pair for less than 24 to 30 marks, 

 whilst Fiirstenburg ofteied the beautiful red male for 

 9 marks, the orange-colouriMl male for 5 marks, .rnd the 

 female for 1 mark. I have never seen them offered for 

 sale in the London market. 



LoNG-TAiLKD Ro.sE-FiNCH (T'ragus lejiidus). 



"General colour above brown, the feathers of the 

 back and mantle broadly centred with black, ami 

 washed with dark crimson : lower back and rump uni- 

 fonn deep ro.sy ; lesser wing coverts dark rosy, the 

 feathers with' blackish bases; median and greater 



coverts blackish, edged with ashy and broadly tipped 

 with creamy white, forming a dark wing bar; bastard- 

 wing, prinuirj'-covertfi, and quills dark brown, edg«d 

 with lighter brown, more asbv on the primaries; innei- 

 secondaries broadly edged with ashy white on the outer 

 web ; upper tail-coverts dark ashy ; tail-feathers blackish, 

 edge<l with ashy, the two outer feathers white for the 

 most part, except for an oblique blackish mark along the 

 inner web and along the outer web, the external feather 

 white along the outer web, with a blackish shaft ; crov.Mi 

 of head ashy brown with a slight rosy tinge, all the 

 feathers mottled with dusky centres ; fore part of the 

 head silvery white with a rosy tinge, the feathers 

 slightly mottled with dusky spots; lores and base of 

 forehead dark crimson ; eyebrow silvery white, con- 

 tinued from the frontal liand ; .sides of face, ear-coverts, 

 cheeks, and throat silvery whitish with a rosy tinge, 

 i-omewhat lanceolate on the throat; sides of neck ashy 

 grey, mixed with rosy tpots ; fore neck and breast deep 

 ro.w-colour, the abdomen dull whitish ; sides of body 

 and flanks sandy brown, streaked with dark brown ; 

 thighs ashy brown ; under tail-coverts whitish, tinged 

 with rosy; rmder wing-coverts ashy whitish, washed 

 with ro.sy ; axillaries white; quills Ijelow dusky, ashy 

 whitish along the inner edge. Total length 5.8 inches, 

 culmen 0.35, wing 2.6, tail 2.4, tarsus 0.6 (Mus. 

 Parix). 



" The female represents that of U. i>anguino~ 

 Irntiix, but is more ashy and has none of the tawny 

 tinge on the lower back and rump which is seen on the 

 last-named tp«ci6s ; the sides of the body and flanks are 

 also brown, streaked with blackish brown, more coarsely 

 than in U. saiu/uinolmfiii'. Total length 5.5 inches, 

 culmen 0.35, wing 2.55, tail 2.65, tarsus 0.65. {Mtis. 

 Pnrix)." — Sharpe. Habitat, China. 



The preceding description was made by Dr. Sharpe 

 from the type specimens in the Paris Musemn, there 

 being at the time no examples in the British M\iseum 

 collection ; but it is just these rare birds that are some- 

 times dropped upon in nunrbers by t-rappers, so that 

 they become familiar objects in aviaries Iiefore they are 

 even represented in many collections of skins; the 

 Yellow-runiped Finch {Miinia Hari /iri/mnn) is an 

 instance of this. Dr. Hartert evidently regards T^ragus 

 lejyidux as a subspecies of f'. sihirinif. but I have not 

 come across any notes on the wild life of either. A 

 specimen reached the London Zoological Gardens in 

 1903. 



This concludes the typical Finches. I shall next pro- 

 ceed to descrilje the imported species of Buntings. 



CHAPTER X. 



BUNTINGS {Emberizijun). 



In captivity the .species of thnbrriza should be fed in 

 the same manner as the Chaffinches. 



The Grey-hkadkd Bunting (Emherha furala). 



General colour above deep red-brown streak*^! with 

 black, excepting oir the nunp, which is uniform ; head 

 and neck slate-grey ; upper tail-coverts pale brown 

 centred with blackish ; wings and tail dark brown with 

 bro,ad fawn cx>loure<l lx)rders to the feathers; outer tail- 

 fckalhers )>artly white on inner web; lores, eyelid, and a 

 narrow ill <lofiiied line over eye white; ear-c-overts 

 chestnut, with a small white spot on hind?r margin; a 

 larger white .spot on the sides of the neck ; throat white ; 

 a narrow black moustachial streak joining a black gorget 



