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then gapes like a fowl with that complaint. She will eat any amount

of butter which I give her. I can’t find anything obstructing her throat,

and the bowels are working freely.


As this is not the first case I have had of this kind, and which I

expect will terminate fatally, as did the previous cases, I should be glad of

any information you could supply towards a cure or prevention in future.


I should add that since being “ in hospital" the bird has laid an egg,

but is not one whit the better for it. W. G. Douglas.



The Jollowmg reply was sent to Mr. Douglas :


If you feed a finch upon butter, you can hardly be surprised that she

should suffer from a sort of digestive disorder. Butter is not a natural food

for any bird. If you have given butter with a view to oiling the works,

because seed did not remain in the crop, I can only suppose that yon have

been using shell-sand, and the chips of shell have cut through the crop,

so that it cannot retain the seed : this is a cause of death in many finches.

Sea-sand is the proper sand to use for all birds. I use no other kind.


A. G. Butler.


PARROT FINCHES BREEDING.


Sir, —In looking over some notes >e Parrot Finches I do not recollect

that any of our members have recorded two peculiarities when giving an

account of their birds breeding.


Whether mine were an exceptional pair I cannot say. They

were put up three times for breeding. The first time a broken

egg was found at the bottom of the cage containing two young. In

this and the following evening a most peculiar noise came from the nest

resembling the whir-r-r or rolling notes made by the Nightjar. At first I

could not locate where the sound came from, and went to the door think¬

ing it came from the Colonel’s ground opposite, yet I thought it strange for

them to be there, never having heard them nearer than Snelsmore Common,

about a mile and a half away. At last I found the sound came from the

birds in the nest. It seemed a song of triumph that there was an increase

to the population. At intervals of a few days two more eggs with living

chicks were tlirowm out, then an extra large egg with two young. The

last performance was the infanticide of a bird (which was forwarded to our

late Secretary to see what a fine fellow he was.) The little fellow used to

cr)' out lustily of an evening for the parents to feed it, but why it was ex¬

pelled from the nest after being cared for nearly three weeks (for it was

well nourished) I cannot understand.


The second and third time proved no more successful, and I lost

heart. I believe the fault was with the lady, for she was wild, but the cock

when talked to would flutter his wings, showing the under part close tp

the body of a biscuit colour. My failure at cage breeding was borne out by

our member, Mr. Savage, who twice failed when he had them in a cage,

but was successful in the aviary ( f ). W. T. CaTLEUGH.



(/). See Vol. III., page 167 .



