Finches. 183 



the discovery that these birds will breed so readily in 

 captivity, both in aviaries and cages, that they are 

 likely to become as completely naturalized with us as 

 the Canary ; indeed, they are far more prolific, and 

 when once a pair has begun to build, they will go on 

 with one brood after another, rearing sometimes twenty 

 or more young birds in a year. Having heard that 

 between thirty and forty were exhibited at the Crystal 

 Palace Bird Show, in February, 1875, the progeny of 

 two pairs between February and November, I pro- 

 cured a pair of these beautiful birds, and provided 

 them with nesting materials, a rush basket, and a 

 cocoa-nut. I had some difficulty in getting them to 

 eat the egg food, which is said to be absolutely neces- 

 sary for them while breeding and rearing their young, 

 but by mixing it with their seed, they became gradu- 

 ally accustomed to it. They built a very pretty nest 

 of moss, feathers, and wool in the cocoa-nut ; but as 

 soon as this was finished, they migrated to the rush 

 basket. The hen laid three eggs in this, then went 

 back to the cocoa-nut and laid one or two there, and 

 wandered backwards and forwards, not sitting steadily 

 in either nest. I put all the eggs together, but with 

 no better result, and not being aware that it is a 

 common practice of these birds to make a number of 

 false nests before they settle into the real nursery 

 nest, I gave up the attempt to rear any young from 

 this pair, and transferred them to my aviary cage for 



