1 62 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



believed that this species would not live in confinement, Mr. Wiener 

 had a pair nine years. Lieut. Hauth, who in the course of time was 

 in possession of sixteen head, and in 1886, reared them with success, 

 has stated, it has a difficulty in bearing the double yearly moult ; 

 nevertheless, the male of the breeding pair, mentioned by Mr. Bargheer, 

 moulted well for five years. Altogether more easy to keep than 

 several allied species, it needs, however, in addition to millet and 

 canary-seed, raw unhusked rice." 



A pair of this beautiful little bird was given to me, about the 

 year 1889, by the Hon. Walter de Rothschild. I turned them into 

 my small-finch aviary in the bird-room, and supplied them with paddy 

 rice, spray-millet, grass in the ear, grass-seed, and egg-food, in 

 addition to the white millet and canary, previously given regularly to 

 the inhabitants of that aviary ; there was also, in one corner, a large 

 patch of fresh turf for them to pick over : but within about three 

 weeks both were dead; the liver and spleen being affected with 

 tubercle and the bowels inflamed. They were, therefore, diseased 

 when I received them, and no amount of care would have been at all 

 likely to restore them to health. When we look at the condition in 

 which some of the newly imported delicate Finches are kept, by many 

 of the smaller dealers, it is no marvel that they not only become 

 diseased, but communicate maladies to one another. If these men, 

 instead of leaving accumulations of filth in the cages, and even flinging 

 the seed upon the top of the same, would only take a lesson from 

 Mr. Abrahams, and keep their birds clean, they would find that they 

 would not only lose far fewer birds, but (and this they would consider 

 vastly more important) far fewer patrons. 



I purchased a pair of Pin-tailed Nonpareils on February igth, 

 1897 ; and, on the 2Oth, turned them into one of my flight-cages. At 

 first they were very wild, but before night had settled quietly on the 

 perch as far as possible from the front. For several months the hen 

 was too weak to reach the perch, excepting by running up the wire, 

 then she seemed to get all right, but in August she again became 

 feeble, and on the ayth of that month I found her dead; the cock is 

 still in grand condition as I go to press (April 1898). 



Mr. Davison says : "I first met with this lovely species at the 

 village of Bopyin, where I found it associating with flocks of Munia 

 acuticaudala, and feeding in the rice-fields ; they were very shy, and 

 on being fired at, immediately retreated to the dense bamboo jungle 

 surrounding the fields. Their note is very similar to that of Munias, 

 and is uttered both when seated and flying ; they have also a soft 



