Correspondaice.



37



breeding are very small. The Spice Birds nested under the eave of the

shelter and behind a cocoa-nut husk. The nest was built with the hard

seed stems of grass, without any lining. Arthur Gilt.



BRITISH BIRD NOTES.


Sir, —During a stay of three weeks in Shropshire, on the borders of

Montgomeryshire, I had the satisfaction of seeing some rare birds, for

instance, a Green Woodpecker, a Heron, and a Jay, the last a very scarce bird

indeed in that part of the world. I also caught sight of a family party of

seven Goldfinches, the first I have seen wild for a longtime: they were

feeding on some thistles on a piece of waste land in the Welsh county.

Sparrows and Wood Pigeons were decidedly too numerous, the former

especially, and were doing an appreciable amount of damage to the corn

and other cereals. I also perceived a belated Cuckoo, and saw numerous

Swallows sitting on the telegraph wires, preparing for their departure to a

more genial clime, which was rather early for them to think of leaving us,

for some of them had young ones still in the nest, but the weather was so

inclement, one cannot wonder at their hurry. The Chaffinches had broken

up their family parties and I saw several flocks of the males, but the

females were conspicuous by their absence. Starlings were plentiful, so

were Yellowhammers, but I saw no Linnets, for there was little or no furze

coverts about. Pheasants were numerous, but backward, and many couples

(or is it brace ?) of Partridges appeared to be childless, while those with

families had not many young, the biggest covey I saw only consisted of

twelve birds, and many only numbered seven or eight. W. T. GrEENE.



BREEDING GOULDIAN FINCHES, &C.


Sir, —It may interest some of the readers of the Avicultural Maga¬

zine to know that I have bred the Blackheaded Gouldian Finch in my out¬

door aviary. The pair of birds were removed from an aviary they had

inhabited for three months, into another containing Redheaded and Black¬

headed Goulds, White Java Sparrows, Parrot Finches, Cordon Bleus and

Grassfinclies on the 18th July, and on the 26th of the same month the first

egg was laid, and three young birds were hatched by the third week in

August. They are all remarkably strong and healthy birds, their backs

already colouring green, and the violet on the breast quite observable. Mr.

A. E. Nicholson states in his interesting letter of last month that the young

males of this species assume adult plumage when 14 months old, which

seems a long time, especially as my young birds (only 6 weeks old) already

begin to show colour on the body, the heads being still the same dull grey.

I may say that the old birds were remarkably tame while nesting, allowing

me to lift the cocoa-nut husk off the nail on which it hung, the bird still



