162 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



sides of head blue, blackish at base of forehead, lores 

 and base of cheeks ; under surface lighter green, espe- 

 cially on thrtKit and bre:ist ; thighs bully yellow ; under 

 wing-coverts and axillaries bright buff, the latter tinged 

 Vith green ; flights below dusky, their inner webs bright 

 buff ; beak black ; feet pale bix>wn ; irides black. 

 Female altogether duller. Hab. , Moluccas, New 

 Guinea, Cai-oline and Solomon Islands. 



Wallace found this species in Ternate at a height of 

 2,000 feet; but according t« Dr. Guilleiuard (P.Z.S., 

 1885) it is not confined to the mountains, but is obtain- 

 able at a considerably lower altitude. 



There seems to be remarkably little published respect- 

 ing the wild life of the Parrot Finches, but Dr. Russ 

 quotes the following from Von Kittlitz's account: — "In 



P.vitROT Finches. 



its home in the island of Ualan this beautiful little bird 

 is less rare than it seems to be owing to its cunning and 

 secretive manner of life. It lives singly (or in pairs) 

 almost everywhere -where there are banana plantations 

 and the like, and strives to keep concealed near to the 

 ground. If it is flushed, it flies for a longdistance, utter- 

 ing its call-note — a sharp and fine :ilt, zift. The col- 

 lector did not hear a song. Its food consist^s of small 

 seeds, especially the seed of a kind of thi.sfle." 



Russ -was of "opinion that there wa,s little prospect of 

 this species ever being imported ; but, for many years 

 past, examples have been occasionally exhibited at the 

 Crystal Palace and other bird-shows. Occurring, as it 

 does, in many islands, I should have thought it far more 

 likely to come to hand than the true Parrot Finch. 

 PrNTAiLF.D NoNp.vREiL i'ErylhrMra praiina). 



The Nonpareil cock is of a bright sage-green colour 

 above ; the tail-feathers vermilion-red tipped with 



blackish ; the two middle feathers blackish in th> 

 middle, longer than the others, £uid terminating in 

 needle-like hairs, whence the bird derives its name; the 

 cheeks, throat, and front of breast cobalt blue, the 

 blue of the fore-ohest shading almost imperceptibly into 

 rose-vermilion, the sides, vent, and under tail-coverts 

 golden brown : the beak is black, and the feet brownish 

 flesh coloured. The hen differs in the absence of the 

 blue and vermilion of the luider parts, which are re- 

 placed by gi-een and golden brown respectively. Hab., 

 Southern Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, 

 Java, and Borneo. 



Mr. John Whitehead met with this lovely bird in 

 large flocks in Northern Borneo in the Dusan rice-fields, 

 and says that they were especially active late and early 

 in the day. 



"Though their plumage is composed of 

 the brightest of colour.^, these birds are 

 difficult to see when settled in the 

 jungle, into which they fly on being 

 alarmed." {The Ibis, 1889. p. 436.) 



There is some resemblance in colouring 

 between this species and the larger 

 Bunting known as the .iVmerican 

 Nonpareil. 



About the year 1889 two cocks of this 

 species were given to me by the Hon. 

 Walter Rothscliild (who for several years 

 was good enough to add any pretty 

 little species which he chanced to see in 

 the bird shops to my collection). As 

 they appeared to be in fairly good 

 health. I turned them into my bird- 

 room with other ornamental Finches. I 

 supplied them with paddy-rice, grass- 

 seed, grass in the ear, spray-millet and 

 egg-food, in addition to the staple seeds, 

 wliite millet and canary ; they also had 

 a good patch of fresh turf to pick over; 

 nevertheless, in about three weeks they 

 were both dead, and a post-mortem 

 examination revealed an unliealthy con- 

 dition of the liver and spleen and 

 violent inflammation of the intestines. 



On February 19th, 1897. I purchased a 

 pair and turned them into one of my 

 large flight cages. At first these birds 

 were very wild, and always roosted close 

 to the back of the cage, but in time they 

 became a little more confident, though 

 never really tame. The hen was very 

 weak.,and for a month could only reach 

 the perch by running up the wire front, then for a season 

 .she seemed "entirely to recover, but in August the weak- 

 ness returned, and she died liefore th» end of that month. 

 The male, however, retained its health until July. 1898. 

 when, at the commencement of its moult, it also died. I 

 found that tJiese birds would not touch spray millet, but 

 white millet, canary and oats exactly suited tlieni; in 

 fact, oats are an excellent substitute for paddy-rice when 

 the latter is not readily obtainable, but the Pintailed 

 Nonpareil certainly prefers rice. 



In Julv, 1906. a fairly l.xrge consignment of this species 

 arrived in the lyondon market, and my friend Miss Glad- 

 stone kindlv sent me a pair on the 13th ; iinfortunately 

 the cock died three diiys later, whereupon she ordered a 

 second pair to be sent to me ; the cock arrived with a 

 broken leg, and the supposed hen was a young cock ; 

 both were dead by the 29th. Miss Gladstone then 

 ordered two cock birds to be sent to me ; both were in 

 the young plumage when they arrived on August 2nd ; 



