GRASSFINCHES. 



167 



The call-note is a melancholy kittenish sort of cry, 

 but the song is undoubtedly pleasing : 



"When turned loose in an aviary, a pair of Parson 

 Finches will be at home almost immediately, and after 

 picking about on the earth for an hour or so will begin 

 to think about setting up housekeeping ; then the_ sing- 

 ing and dancing begin, and if materials for building 

 are dven a nest iis soon formed either in a canary-cage 



PARSON FINCH. 



(Head and shoulders of male.) 



or cigar nest-box ; in the former it is 

 arched over as a screen from prying 

 eyes, but in the latter a simple open 

 nest is formed level with the opening 

 of the box. Both birds sit, and if the 

 hen bird does not become egg-bound 

 there will be little difficulty in breeding 

 the species. Unhappily this is exactly 

 what usually does happen, so that I 

 have only once been successful, and 

 even then the young were murdered by 

 an unpaired cock of the same species 

 within a day or two of their leaving 

 the nest. Only one pair of this species 

 should be permitted to inhabit the same 

 aviary. 



From first to last I suppose I nave 

 had about a dozen pairs of the Parson 

 Finch, and although exceptions occur 

 in this as in all species, I do not con- 

 sider Poephila cincta by any means a 

 safe bird for a mixed community of tiny 

 Finches. It is usually an interfering 

 and dangerous little busybody, to whom 

 I have often been indebted for the loss 

 of interesting nests, and occasionally of 

 inoffensive little birds which had per- 

 chance excited its evil passions. 



In August, 1897, Mr. Abrahams sent 

 me the skin and sketch of a hybrid 

 between a cock Parson Finch and a 

 white Bengalee. 



In this hybrid the characteristics of 

 the father are strongly brought out ; 

 but a mere examination of the skin 

 would lead anyone to suppose that the 

 mother had been a Striated Finch, to 

 which type the bird appears to have 

 reverted in a remarkable degree. 



The large black gorget of the Parson Finch is repre- 

 sented by a slightly more restricted snow-white patch 

 irregularly bordered with black ; the chin remains black, 

 but tthe silvery-ash colour of tJhe crown and sides of fche 

 head are barely indicated by a diffused hoary patch on 

 the cheeks ; tfhe white rump is also only represented by 

 a sliight ashy tinting of the feathers ; the vent, as might 

 be expected, remains whitei; the black belt, extending, 

 obliquely from below the wing to the thigh, remains 

 exactly as in the Parson Finch, but is preceded by 

 white on tihe abdomen ; the colouring of the breast is 

 deeper and somewhat 'greyer than in the Parson Fdncli, 

 the hinder portion being especially grey tinted. 



The colouring of the face to behind the eye, the crown,, 

 nape, mantle, and tail are precisely as in tlhe Striated 

 Finch. The form of the beak is exactly that of this 

 species, as also the form of the tail ; the base of the 

 lower mandible was evidently "whitish, otherwise the 

 beak agreed in colouring with that of Uroloncha striata. 

 I think these facts are extremely interesting, as proving,, 

 or tending to prove, that the Striated and not the Sharp- 

 tailed Finch was the original ancestor of the Bengalee. 



This marvellous \hybrid was, unhappily, not bred in 

 this country, but by Mr. F. Kamsties, of Konigsberg. 

 When in Mr. Abrahams' care, in 1887, a coloured sketch 

 of it was prepared, from which the illustration above 

 was made. 



For some years after 1890 the price of the Parson Finch 

 was very reasonable, but after the nearly related Long- 

 tailed Grassfinch had become a familiar object in the 

 bird-market, the price of Parson Finches rose to about 



PARSON FINCH WHITE BENGALEE HYBRID. 



