150 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



to a collection of small birds, and lives well upon 

 canaryseed, with white and spray millet. It is said to 

 be by no means difficult to breed, and there is only one 

 thing to hinder its becoming a general pet it is by no 

 means cheap. 



Dr. Russ says that the production of each brood takes 

 four weeks and each -pair produces annually from three 

 to as many as seven broods. Both sexes incubate, sitting 

 together in the nest after the manner of many of the 

 Ploceid Finches. The young must be removed as soon 

 aii the old birds go to nest again, otherwise they are 

 murderously attacked. Tihe clutch consists of four'eggs. 

 In this country I believe Mr. Hawkins was the first to 

 breed the species. (The Avicultural Magazine, 1st 

 Ser., VII., p. 29.) 



OLIVE FINCH (Phonipara lepida}. 



Above olive-green ; lesser and median coverts rather 

 yellower; rest of wing and tail dusky with olive outer 

 margins, yellower on primaries and tail-feathers; central 

 tail-feathers entirely yellowish olive ; a blackish frontal 

 line passing above the eye ; lores, eyebrow stripe and 

 eyelid orange; feathers in front of and below eye and 

 the cheeks blackish; upper throat orange, lower throat 

 blackish; breast, sides, and flanks ashy olive; centre 

 of breast and abdomen huffish, whiter toAvards vent; 

 thighs whitish ; under tail-coverts pale yellow with 

 dusky mottling ; under w.ing-coverts and axillaries pale 

 greenish yellow, brighter at edge of wing ; flights below 

 dusky, with ashy inner edges; beak horn-black; feet 

 purplish ; irides dark hazel. Female duller ; eyebrow 

 stripe pale yellowish; no blackish on sides of 'head; 

 margins of eyelid 'whitish ; lower throat only mottled 

 with blackish ; chin pale yellow; under ports'pale ashy 

 whiter at centre of breast and abdomen and on thighs'; 

 under tail-coverts as in male. Hab., "Greater 

 Antilles." (Sharpe.) 



According to Gundlach this is a resident bird in Cuba 

 "common in fields and regions devoid of forest, less so 

 in the vicinity of forest and never penetrating far into 

 woods. In the summer and the breeding season it lives 

 in pairs or family parties ; in the dry or cold season it 

 unites into large flocks on the sugar-plantations, where 

 it feeds upon sugar on the drying-grounds, or on the 

 coffee plantations, where it also finds sufficient food. 

 This consists o>f act nail seeds, especially grass-seeds, a.s 

 well as tender sappy green food, such .as wild pnrslain ; 

 it eagerly sips the nectar from large flowers. It never 

 does any harm to mankind. Almost the -whole year 

 through one finds nests with eggs or young, even in 

 the winter months. The actual nesting-season, how- 

 ever, first commences in the rainy season of the spring. 

 The nest almost always stands at a little distance above 

 the ground, in shrubs, small coffee or orange-trees, etc. 

 It is comparatively large, more or less globose in 

 structure, with a side entrance, and consists externally 

 of drv plants, hair. wool, feathers, rootlets, cotton, and 

 the like, and internally of a layer of soft materials, plant- 

 wool, feathers and other materials. The number of eggs 

 amounts to two or three, but not, as D'Orbignv states, 

 to five. 



" One can easily keen it in a cage, and if this is large 

 even breed it. The food consists of canaryseed and 

 finely-ground maize. The song has no merit ;"it is weak 

 and in some degree resembles the, sounds which grass- 

 hoppers make moreover it has only one call-note. That 

 it can learn to sing, as D'Orbigny asserts, I do not 

 believe; this assertion certainly arises from a mistake." 



According to Mr. L. W. Hawkins (Thr Ar'iniJt-ural 

 Magazine, 1st Series. Vol. VII., r>. 30) this species was 

 first bred by a gentleman in Scotland, two males and a 



female being successfully reared. Mr. R. Phillipps says 

 that these birds came into his hands and they seem to 

 be assuming the plumage but not the song of P. pusilla 

 rather than, P. lepida. Mr. Beth-Smith, who bred the 

 Olive Finch in his aviaries in 1907, found them just as 

 murderous towards their young when starting to nest 

 again, as Dr. R/uss says the Cuba Finch is. 



LITTLE FINCH (Phonipara pusilla). 



A sub-species of the preceding according to Dr. Sharpe, 

 but Mr. Phillipps appears to doubt this.* It differs 

 from P. lepida in its yellower colouring, the secondaries 

 entirely yellowish-green, as well as the central tail- 

 feathers ; crown more dusky than back ; blackish on the 

 forehead ; lores, eyebrow, and margins of eyelid golden 

 yellow; feathers round eye, ear-coverts, and cheeks 

 black; chin and upper throat golden yellow; lower 

 throat, breast and centre of abdomen in front blackish, 

 rest of abdomen dark ashy olive ; sides, flanks, and 

 thighs olive-yellowish,; under tail-coverts similar but 

 mottled with dusky ; under wing-coverts and axillarits 

 olive-yellow, the latter duller. Female with wing- 

 coverts olive-greenish like upper surface generally ; 

 other wing and tail-feathers dusky with olive margins ; 

 sides of face and under surface olive-greenish, yellower 

 in centre of abdomen. Hab., Mexico, through Central 

 America to Panama and Colombia. (Sharpe,) 



I have discovered no notes respecting the wild life of 

 this bird, but Mr. Reginald Phillipps has given a long 

 and interesting account of his success in breeding it in 

 captivity in The Arintltural Magazine, Ser. 1, Vol. VI., 

 pp. 191-199 and 237-240. 



DUSKY FINCH (Phonipara Hrolor). 



Above dull olive-green, almost black on head and 

 dusky on mantle and upper back ; greater coverts, 

 bastard-wing, primary-coverts and flights dark brown, 

 externally edged with dull oliv-j ; tail similar, but the 

 central ones washed with dull olive ; sides of head, 

 throat, and breast dead black ; abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts more ashy and with whiter edges ; sides and 

 flanks olivaceous ; thighs dull olive ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries dead black ; flights below blackish with 

 ashy inner edges ; beak brown, paler on lower mandible ; 

 feet brownish grey; irides brown. Female without 

 Mack on head, the sides of head ashy-brown with an 

 olive tinge ; throat, front and sides of breast sooty 

 grey tinged with olive ; centre of breast and abdomen 

 whitish with a slight yellow tinge ; sides of body and 

 flanks olive-brown. Hab., Lesser Antilles, Colombia, 

 and Venezuela. 



Mr. J. L. Bonhote (The Ibis, 1899, p. 512) says of this 

 species : " The Sparrow of the Bahamas, abundant 

 everywhere, especially round habitations," and (The 

 Ibis, 1903, p. 290) " A most abundant resident. The 

 nest is a domed structure made entirely of dry grass, 

 generally placed at the top of a small .straight sapling 

 at a height varying from four to ten feet. The eggs 

 are of a dull white with brownish markings, most con- 

 spicuous at the larger end. Measurements .72 by .51 

 mill. Incubation commences at the end of March." 



This completes the true Finches (Fringillidce), and 

 leads naturally to the Ploceidce or typical Weaving 

 Finches, of which I should judge the most ancient type 

 to be the genus Mimia, which probably branched off 

 on. the one side into the Grassfinches and Waxbills, 

 and on the other to the Weavers and Whydahs. 



* The intermediate form from Cozumel and Holbox Island has 

 been regarded as a second subspecies by KLdgway, under the name 

 of intermedia. 



