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parents, hatched and reared by my Zebra-finches. These eggs

were laid after the hen had been sitting on her first batch of eggs

about a week, and were, of course, unhatched when her first two

young ones appeared. I transferred them at once to the Zebra-

finches, who were then sitting on eggs of their own in a cocoanut

shell suspended in a cage. They brought up two young Zebra

cocks and the two young Double-banded Finches together.

When the young leave the nest they look like the parents, but

the two bands are not so distinct, and the white parts are very

dirty looking. When about three months old, however, they are

not to be distinguished from the parents (£).


Last year I was rather successful in breedingthe Long-tailed

Grassfinches, but this year they do not seem to have managed so

well. They have sat on four batches of eggs, two of which were

complete failures, noeggs hatching at all. Once twoyoungones left

the nest, but died a week later, apparently of starvation. On the

last occasion two birds were hatched, one of which grew much

less rapidly than the other, and finally died in the nest. The

other is the only one reared this year. They build their nest

sometimes in a German canary cage, and sometimes in a

mahogany nest box hanging on the wall. My pair have red

beaks, but a large number have yellow beaks. I have heard it

stated that the difference is due to the age of the bird, the beak

only turning red after a certain age. I have also been told that

it is the aviary-bred specimens alone that have yellow beaks. I

can only say that I have kept Yellow-beaked Longtails over two

years without any change in colour, and that the beaks of my

aviary-bred birds, from Red-beaked parents, have invariably

turned directly from black to red. I assume, therefore, that there

are two varieties.


The African Fire-finch is a bird with a strong inclination

to breed. The great difficulty is to get it acclimatised. I bought

four pairs last January, of which two pairs aud a cock died

within a fortnight. The surviving pair and odd hen are still in

my possession. The pair have nested three times. The first

time they lined a cocoanut shell on the wall with hay and

feathers. They had three eggs and sat well, but all the eggs

were clear. The second time they selected a cocoanut shell on

the roof. This time they had four eggs from which three young

were successfully reared. The third time they built a nest in a


(£.) This year I have fully reared five, in three batches ; and others lived to leave the

nest, but perished in the cold and wet. I find the elder ones may be distinguished from

the adults by the narrow breast-band. The narrow breast-band is a sign of youth, not of

sex as suggested by some aviculturists.—K.P



