160 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



stood high up in a corner, and was provided with only one Hartz- 

 cage. Immediately they set to work, and in five days completed a 

 nest, paired, and on the igth March, four large smooth white eggs, 

 without gloss, were discovered in the nest. .The same day the hen 

 began to incubate; the cock-bird relieving her for a short time during 

 the day. On the ist April, or after thirteen days, the first egg was 

 hatched, two more the following day, the fourth egg was addled. 

 Both parents fed the young diligently, on finely chopped hard-boiled 

 egg (yolk and white together), scalded and strained ants' cocoons, 

 Potsdam biscuit as well as white millet, canary,* shelled oats and rice 

 in the husk. 



On the twenty-second day, the young birds left the nest, and did 

 not even return to it to pass the night. Lieut. Hauth here expresses 

 his belief that if, through a scare, the young leave the nest after 

 nineteen days, they return to it at night for the sake of warmth ; 

 but not when fully fledged. 



The chirping of the young when being fed, is said to be unlike 

 that of other Amandines, and to resemble more nearly that of the 

 Cuba-finch, or some of our native Finches. 



THE PIN-TAILED NONPAREIL. 



Erythrura prasina, SPARRM. 



T NHABITS Southern Tenasserim, through the Malayan Peninsular 

 1 to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. It is occasionally imported in some 

 numbers ; but unfortunately many examples arrive in a weak and 

 unhealthy condition, and, in spite of every care, quickly die. 



In colouring, this bird somewhat resembles the American Nonpareil 



* The word is "Spitzsat," the meaning of which I have been unable to discover in any 

 dictionary, to which I have access, and which no German, to whom I have applied, has been 

 able to translate. One friend, however, eventually discovered that it meant canary-seed ; the 

 word should be written Spitzsaat, which means, literally, pointed cereal. A.G.B. 



