146



CORRESPONDENCE.



GOULDIAN FINCHES.


Sir, — Perhaps Air. A. K. Booth royd may be interested to hear my

experience with Gouldians, or, as they are called in their native Queensland,

“Painted Finches.”


I had two of these beautiful birds given me in September or October

(I forget which month) of 1899. I placed them in a large cage, 3 feet long,

3 feet high, all wire, small mesh, and settled them in the warmest corner of

my birdroom. I11 November of the same year, while I was away from

home, one of the birds was found disabled and was put in a little cage to be

nursed, but it died during the night. It was sent to a naturalist to be

examined, and was found to be perfectly healthy in every respect, but its

leg had been broken, and it probably died from shock. I believe both birds

must have been cocks, and they probabl}- fought — both birds had the long

pin-feather in the tail. I do not know if the cocks of this species are

usually quarrelsome.


I put a pair of little Indian Silverbills in the cage to keep the

surviving Painted Beauty company, and they have always agreed perfectly.

One unfortunately died lately, but the remaining one and a tiny Avadavat

live with the Gouldian in perfect friendship.


I supply them daily with a liberal quantity of small Indian millet,

white millet, and millet in the ear. I add a small pan of canary seed, but

as this never decreases I conclude none of the birds in the cage care for it.

The Gouldian lives almost entirely on the Indian seed and that in the ear,

but I have seen him partaking of the white millet. I sometimes scatter a

little common grass seed on the sand, and it disappears. I also occasionally

put in a little bit of sponge cake or preserved yolk, but I do not know it

the Gouldian eats any of these delicacies. I use sea sand and give cuttle

bone; also plenty of freshwater, one pan large enough for the birds to

bathe. I must add that my bird seems perfectly happy without a mate, aud

sings his bubbling song constantly.


The temperature of my room is never over 55 deg. in Winter, and

very often lower : the glass went down to 32 deg. on two nights during the

cold weather of last month, but the Painted bird seemed in no way to

suffer or to be the worse for it. I am told by a friend, who has lived for

many years in N. Australia, and kept them there, that these birds can stand

frost much better than damp, and sometimes get it in their native laud —

although it seems strange to think of frost in the tropics. I cover the

back and one side of the cage to protect him from any possible draught

when the window is opened in the birdroom.


I must not boast of my bird, but he really is a beauty: seems healthy

and strong, and is in most magnificent plumage. The blending of colours

in this species is truly marvellous, and I believe impossible to exactly re¬

produce on paper, although Mr. Frohawk’s picture in Dr. Butler’s useful

book on “Foreign Finches” is remarkably lifelike. EM1 L,Y WEST.



