I. 



THE CULTURE OF FINCHES. 



Bv Dr. A. G. ButlER. 



The Editor has suggested that I should contribute a paper 

 upon this subject for the benefit of beginners in aviculture, and 

 although I do not profess to know more about these birds than 

 many others of our members, the fact that I am the author of 

 " Foreign Finches in Captivity " probably induced him to select 

 me for the task. 



Finches are not my favourite birds, although they are 

 tolerably easy to provide for; thej'^ are neither so easily tamed as 

 a general rule, so intelligent, or so long-lived as so-called "Soft- 

 billed birds " still they are very beautiful and many of them are 

 easy to breed in captivity. They are all seed-eaters, but most of 

 them eat a certain amount of living insect-food, especially when 

 breeding ; many of them feed also upon the green seeds of 

 grasses, buds, small fruits and berries, and the leaves of weeds, 

 but especially duckweed and groundsel. 



The Finches, as is well known, belong to two large 

 families — FringillidcB and Ploceidce ; the former having the 

 bastard-primary shorter than its coverts, the latter with it lon- 

 ger. The Fringillidce are related to the Larks and in a lesser 

 degree to the New World Starlings. The Plocddce in my opinion 

 form a link between the true finches {^Friyigillidce) and the New 

 World Starlings (^Icteiidcs). 



