Correspondence , Notes, etc.



305



Singing-finch near the eyes, but in other respects it is like the mother. Has

this cross been reared before ?


I have one Redrump out of the nest to-day. A pair of Rosellas are

sitting.


Cockatiels are most disheartening ; eggs never hatch although the

birds sit well. Sometimes the young are quite fully developed in the egg.


F. H. Rudkin.



AFRICAN SPARROWS, FTC.


Sir,—I am quite ashamed of giving you so much trouble about my


birds.


Since writing to Mr. Phillipps I have heard the note of what I

supposed was the Nigrita arnaudi. It is decidedly like the chirp of a

Sparrow, and I wonder whether they can be Swainson’s Sparrows instead

of Weavers.


The birds were brought from Africa by a gentleman, who kept them

in an aviary with Red-faced Love-birds, and he considered them very rare.

After his death the bird-dealer got them, thought nothing of them, and

was glad to make them over to me. They were pronounced to be Ploceidce

by some learned gentlemen at the Show, but they are not like an}' Weaver

I have ever seen, and are very like Sparrows in their ways and in their

movements and in their song. The beak is long and black and shining ;

the point of the upper mandible slightly arched and projecting over the

under one. They peck hard if taken in the hand. The head, neck, and

breast are of a soft bluish grey ; a patch of darker grey round the eyes; the

bend of the wings and rump are of a reddish brown, like the brown of the

Black-headed Nun; the flight feathers and tail are dark brown with light

edges; across the wings is an indistinct white bar which only shews

occasionally when the feathers are ruffled.


If they turn out to be Sparrows of some kind could you tell me what

their character is, and whether they can be trusted in a mixed aviary ?

Also I would like to know what their food ought to be. I was told millet and

canary seed ; but one of them has got very thin, and turns up the seed and

seems to miss something necessary. I have tried bread and milk, but they

do not care for it; egg they will not touch; cherries and dried figs they

seem to relish, and they are very keen on mealworms, but I dare not give

more than two or three per day. They eat salad, and pounced 011 some

bullock’s heart but did not swallow it. They are often nibbling at the

cuttle-fish bone, and pick up sand and old mortar on the bottom of the

cage.


I should like to know the difference between the Golden Sparrow and

Passer luteus. Those I have are bright yellow with brown wings, the hens

being of a yellowish grey : and I do not know which of the two they are.



