20 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



the tail-feathers blackish, bright yellow externally and pale yellow 

 internally; the crown of the head yellow, bright orange in front; the 

 cheeks and throat yellowish orange; imder parts bright yellow, tinged 

 with green at the sides. Length 5 3 inches; the beak horn-brown, the 

 lower mandible paler; legs brownish flesh-coloured; iris greyish-brown. 



The hen is usually much duller than the male, though very old 

 hens approach the males in their bright colouring; when tolerably 

 young the colouring above is pale greenish yellow, more ashy on the 

 mantle and front of the back, the feathers of which are brown, centred 

 with blackish shaft-lines ; the posterior portion greenish yellow, without 

 markings, but the tail-coverts somewhat dusky in the centres; lesser 

 wing-coverts yellow, median and greater coverts dull brown, with yellow 

 margins and whitish tips; flight feathers dull brown, edged with yellow, 

 excepting the inner secondaries, which have whitey-brown margins ; 

 the tail-feathers also dull brown, with yellow margins ; crown of head 

 greyish-yellow, slightly more orange on the forehead, the feathers 

 with dusky shaft-lines ; lores, face, and throat pale greyish, the latter 

 tinged with yellow ; chest yellow ; remainder of body below whitish 

 in the centre, yellow with ill-defined dusky streaks at the sides ; quills 

 dusky below, with the inner webs broadly edged with yellow. Length 

 5j 3 inches. 



A pair of this species which I had for some years in one of my 

 aviaries never attempted to breed until the winter of 1892-3, when the 

 hen, which by that time had acquired the bright colouring of the 

 cock, built a nest and died egg-bound: a pair received early in 1893 

 went to nest almost immediately, and the hen laid and began to sit 

 steadily, the cock-bird feeding her from the crop at regular intervals 

 throughout the day ; but either a Liothrix, in the same community, 

 stole the eggs, or they got accidentally broken, for I found the shells on 

 the floor of the aviary. Since then I have bred this species freely, 

 both in cage and aviary. Both parents feed the young from the 

 crop, exactly in the same manner as Canaries. 



Herr Wiener, in Cassell's Cage Birds, says : " The Saffron Finch, 

 sometimes called Brazilian Canary, is a wonderfully hardy bird, 

 considering the climate of the land of his birth. I found him thrive 

 on very simple food, and have seen broods of young Saffron Finches 

 leave the nest at Christmas, as well as in spring, summer and autumn ; 

 in fact, they seemed to breed all the year round in my aviary." 



" The love-making of a pair of Saffron Finches is a very peculiar 

 affair, consisting in either the male bird persecuting the hen and 

 punishing her severely if she be not quite ready to receive his advances, 



