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The following reply was sent to Air. Nicholson.


You have certainly been most successful with your Grassfinches this

summer, and I believe you are the first to breed Bathilda ruficauda — success¬

fully— in this country, although young have been reared on several occasions

in France. I can find no previous record of young Rufous-tails being

reared so far as to be able to feed themselves, in Great Britain, although in

1897 a pair nested in the grass in Mr. St. Quin tin’s aviary and two young

birds left the nest, but perished from exposure one cold night, two or three

days after (see Vol. V. p. 97). I have had nests built and eggs laid by this

species in my own aviary, but my pair were (or possibly one only was)

addicted to a habit which seems common to these birds, namely, egg-

eating, so that I was quite unsuccessful in my attempts to propogate the

species. You are to be heartily congratulated upon your success : six is a

splendid brood.


May I ask that you will give the readers of the “ Avicultural

Magazine” a fuller account of your success?—How the nest was built, its

position, on what the young were fed, etc.


You have also been unusually successful with the hong-tails and

Goulds. D. Seth-SmiTh.



