132 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



to keep ill the warmth of a room,* also in pairs in a cage as in an 

 aviary, where it is one of the most peaceable, and endures in excellent 

 condition for several years. Its breeding is more difficult than that 

 of many other Ornamental-finches. Flying freely in a bird-room, a 

 pair may, perhaps, once in a way attain to a productive brood; in a 

 cage on the contrary, let it ever be so advantageously disposed, the 

 result always depends upon a rare fortunate accident. If one wishes 

 to get a pair to breed flying freely, it will eagerly take steps to breed 

 in August and September, and if disturbed, again in March and April. 

 It is best to let it breed in the Spring, as soon as fresh ant's cocoons 

 are to be had. Of green asparagus-spraj^s, they construct in a little 

 basket a spherical, over-arched, elegant, true work of art, with lateral 

 narrow entrance hole, in which the cup is lined with hair, cotton, 

 threads, etc. At another time they willingly form a similar nest of 

 agave or aloe-fibres ; also, out of all kinds of building materials they 

 heap up a shapely tower, which reaches from the nest-basket to the 

 roof of the cage and thereon they place a badly arched similarly lined 

 cup. Laying : three to five small, elongated pointed shining white 

 eggs. Male and female incubate in turn, often also for hours in 

 company. The breeding, from the first egg to the flight of the young, 

 is compassed in about four weeks. Nestling-down pale bluish-white, 

 with beautiful blue-white wax-skin on both sides of the beak. Young 

 plumage like that of the adults. Beak, however, shining black ; the 

 red superciliary stripe, the rose-red suffusion of the lower body and 

 the wavy marking are wanting. Change of colour usually three weeks 

 after flight ; the feathering becomes uniformly darker, and more 

 noticeably clear grey, the red superciliary stripe appears by degrees ; 

 the beak becomes lighter and changes from dirty-yellow and yellow- 

 red into true red ; also the wavy lines become gradually visible. In 

 the fifth to eighth week the change of colour is completed, so that, if 

 the nesting season should come on exactly then, the rose red of the 

 under body is already coming to the surface. The distinction of the 

 sexes is so much the more difficult, since two of the same sex, placed 

 in one cage, show the tenderness of a true pair, and this is one more 

 reason for the difficulty of breeding them. This happened, moreover, 

 to me at first. Hybrids have already been reared between the Grey 

 Astrild and the Little Helena-pheasant, Orange-cheek, Little Gold-breast 

 and Amaranth. The Grey Astrild has no proper song ; both consorts 

 of the pair utter piping, melodious call-notes, and a low whispering, 



* This would probably represent a winter temperature of between 60 to 70 degrees Fahr ; 

 considerably more than my birds ever -enjoyed. A.G.B. 



