150 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



to a collection ot small birds, and lives well upon 

 canaryseed, with white and spray millet. It is said to 

 be by no mean.? difiicult to breed, and there is only ome 

 thing to hinder its becoming a general pet — it is by no 

 means cheaip. 



Dr. Russ says that the prexluttion of each brood takes 

 four weeks and each |)air products annually from three 

 to as many as seven broods, lioth sexes incubate, sitting 

 together in the ne.st after the manner of many of the 

 Ploceid Finches. The young must be removed as soon 

 ai the old birds go to nest again, otherwise they are 

 murderously attacked. The clutch consists of four eggs. 

 In this country I believe Jlr. Hawkins was the first to 

 breed the species. {The Avicultural Magazine, 1st 

 Sex., VII., p. 29.) 



Olive Finch (Phonljiara lepida). 



Above olive-green ; lesser and median coverts rather 

 yelloiwer; rest of wing and tail du.skv with olive outer 

 margins, yellower on primaiies and tail-feathers; central 

 tail-feathers entirely yellowish olive; a blacki.sh frontal 

 line pii&sing above the eye ; lores, eyebrow strii)e and 

 eyelid orange ; feathers in front of and below eye and 

 the cheeks blackish ; upper throat orange, lower throat 

 blackish; breast, sides, and flanks ashy olive; centre 

 of bre;ist and alxlomen huffish, whiter towards vent; 

 thighs whitish ; under tail-coverts pale yellow with 

 dusky mottling; under wing-coverts and axillaries p;ile 

 greenish yellow, brighter at edge of wing ; Hights below 

 dusky, with ashy inner edges; beak horn-black; feet 

 purjilish; irides dark haael. Female duller; eyebrow 

 stripe pale yellowifih ; no blackish on sides of head ; 

 margins of eyelid whitish ; lower throat only mottled 

 with blackish ; chin pale yellow ; under p<irts'pale ashy 

 •whit-er at centre of brea.";! and abdomen and on thighs ; 

 under tail-coverts as in male. Hab., "Greater 

 Antilles." (Sharpe.) 



According to Gundlach this is a resident bird in Cuba 

 "oomnum in fields and regions devoid of forest, less eo 

 in the vicinity of forest and never penetrating far into 

 woods. In the summer and the breeding sea.son it lives 

 in pairs or family paities; in the dry or cold season it 

 unites into large flocks on the sugar-plantations, where 

 it feeds upon sugar on the drj-ing-groamd^-, or on the 

 coffee plantations, where it also finds sufficient food. 

 This consists oif actual seeds, especially grass-seeds, as 

 well as tender sappy green food, .such as wild ptU'S'laiin; 

 it eagerly ksips the nectar from large flowers. It netver 

 does any harm to mankind. Almost the whole year 

 through one finds nests with eggs or young, even in 

 the winter months. The actual nesting-season, bow- 

 ever, first commences in the rainy season of the spring. 

 The nest almost always stands at a little distance above 

 the ground, in shrulis. .small coffee or orange-trees, etc. 

 It is comp.aratively large, more or less globose in 

 structure, with a side entrance, iind consists externally 

 of drv plants, hair. wool, feathers, rootlets, cotton, .and 

 tlie like, and int( rnally of a layer of .soft materials, plant- 

 wool, feathers and other materials. The number of eggs 

 amounts to two or three, but not, as D'Orbigny states, 

 to five. 



" One can easilv keen it in a cage, and if this is Large 

 even breefl it. The food consists of canaryseed and 

 finely-ground maize. The song has no merit; it is weak 

 and in some degree resembles the .sounds which grass- 

 hoppers make — moreover it has only one call-note. That 

 it can learn to sing, as D'Orbigny asserts, I do not 

 believe; this assertion certainly arises from a mistake." 



According lo Mr. I>. W. Hawkins (T'/ic Avinillural 

 Magazine. 1st Series, Vol. VII., p. 30) this species wf.^ 

 first bred by a gentleman in Scotland, two males and a 



female being eucoessfully reared. Mr. R. Phillipps says 

 that these birds came into his hands and thev seem to 

 be assuming the plumage but not the song of P. pusilla 

 rather than P. hjnda. Mr. Seth-Smith. who bred the 

 Olive Finch in his aviaries in 1907, found them just as 

 murderous towards their j'oung when starting to nesi 

 again, as Dr. Rubs Bays the Cuba Finch is. 



LiTTLK Finch iriumipara pusilla). 



A sub-species of the preceding according to Dr. Sbarpe, 

 but Mr. Phillipps appears to doubt this.' It differs 

 from P. Irpjc/a in its yellower colouring, the secondaries 

 ejitirely yellowi-sh-green, as well as the central tail- 

 feathers; crown more dusky than back ; blackish on the 

 forehead ; lores, eyebrow, and margins <^i eyelid golden 

 yellow; feathers round eye, ear-oovertfi, and cheeks 

 black; cliin and ujiper throat golden yellow; lower 

 throat, brea.st and centre of abdomen in front blackish, 

 rest of abdomen dark ashy olive; sides, flanks, and 

 thighs olive-yellotvisb ; under t>ail-coverts similar but 

 mottled with dusky; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 olive-yellow, the latter duller. Female with wing- 

 coverts olive-greenish like upper surface generally; 

 other wing and tail-feathers dusky with olive margins ; 

 sides of face and under surface olive-greenish, yelloiver 

 in centre of abdomen. Hab., Mexico, through Central 

 America to Pajuma and Colombia. (Sharpe.) 



1 have discovered no notes respecting the wild life of 

 this bird, but Mr. Reginald Phillipps has given a long 

 and interesting account of his success in breeding it in 

 captivity in 7'/u' Avicultural Magazine, Ser. 1, Vol. VI., 

 pp. 191-199 and 237-240. 



DusKT Finch [PJumipara bicolor). 



Above dull olive-green, almost black on head and 

 dusky on mantle and upper back ; greater coverts, 

 ba.stard-wing, primary-coverts and flights dark brown, 

 externally edged with dull olive ; tail similar, but the 

 central ones washed with dull olive ; sides of he.ad, 

 throat, and breast dead black ; abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts more ashy and witli whiter edges ; sides and 

 flanks olivaceous; thighs dull olive; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries dead black ; flights below blackish with 

 ashy inner edges ; beak brown, paler on lower mandible ; 

 feet brownish grey ; irjdes brown. Female without 

 black on hea*i, the sides ot head ashy brown with an 

 olive tinge ; throat, front and sides of breast sooty 

 grey tinged with olive : centre of breast and abdomen 

 whitish with a slight yellow tinge : sides of body and 

 flanks olive-brown. Hab., Lesser Antilles, Colombia, 

 and Venezuela. 



Mr. J. L. Bonbote (TM lUf. 1899, p. 512) says of this 

 species: — "The Sparrow of the Baliamas, abundant 

 everywhere, especially rouiKl habitations," and (The 

 lUs, 1903, p. 290) ""a most abundant resident. Tho 

 nest is a domed structure made entirely of dry grass, 

 generally placed at the top of a. small straight sapling 

 at a height varying from four to ten feet. The eggs 

 are of a dull white with brownish markings, most con- 

 spicuous at the larger end. Measuruments .72 by .51 

 mill. Incubation commenci'S at the end of March." 



This completes the true Finches {Frint/ilUdiT), and 

 leads naturally to the Plorpidrr or typical Weaving 

 Finches, of which I should judge the most ancient type 

 to be the genus Munia, which probably branched off 

 on the one side into the Grassfinches and Waxbillo, 

 and on the other to the Weavers and Whydahs. 



• Tlie intermediate form from Cozumel nnd ITolbox Island has 

 been rot?anled as a second subspcciod by Kidgwaj, under the name 

 of intermedia. 



