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German canary cage, and from four eggs reared two young ones.

The young Fire-finches, when just hatched, are rather pretty to

look at when opening their mouths. The roofs of their mouths

have black spots, and at each corner of the mouth are two milk

white glands with a deep blue spot between them. When they

leave the nest both sexes are brown. The cock sits alternately

with the hen in the day time. At night they both sit together.


A pair of Masked Grassfinches, Poephila personata, have

just (October 25th) succeeded in rearing five healthy young ones

in my aviary. The parents have been in my possession about

two years, and have made several attemps to breed, but up till

now with no success. They seem very nervous birds and fly

from the nest on the slighest alarm, and it is a very long time

before they will return. The nests have always been made of

very loose hay in a German canary cage, hanging high up 011

the wall. The shape is globular, with a very small entrance. On

two or three occasions all the young birds have been found dead

in the eggs. Once they hatched two young ones, but the hay of

the nest was so loose that the young birds and the remaining

eggs would sink and get lost in the hay. The little birds only

lived a few hours.


Finding they had laid again last August, I removed the

nest and put in its place another German canary cage, in which

a pair of Parrot-finches had built a much more substantial nest.

Into this I transferred the eggs which this time were six in

number, though previously the number had always been five.

The birds did not appear to notice the difference. Care was

taken to leave the birds as undisturbed as possible, and on

September 4th, five young birds were found in the nest, the sixth

egg which was also fertile being found on the floor. The period

of incubation was about sixteen days.


When first hatched, the young birds are very like young

Long-tailed Grassfinches, but the marks on the palate are more

distinct. On September 27th, all the five birds left the nest fully

fledged. The colours are the same as in the parents but duller,

the beaks, however, being black and the feet grey.


I11 my experience the Masked Grassfinch is a hardier bird

than the White-eared Grassfinch. One pair of the former have

outlived three pairs of the latter. The sexes are very much alike,

but when seen together I have always been able to distinguish

them. The breast of the hen is a decided shade lighter, and the

portion of the mask under the beak a trifle smaller.


Three pairs of birds have produced batches of eggs, but



