170 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



long as they have been allowed plenty of liberty and exercise. As to 

 the caged bird, and its supposed liability to disease, others have had 

 more opportunities of judging than I have for a caged bird is my 

 abomination : and I, therefore, will leave it to these others to express 

 their opinions of the caged bird for themselves. 



" I have invariably found Gouldian Finches ready to nest and to 

 lay, so ready indeed, that I long ago parted with mine, considering 

 that there was not sufficiently more to learn about them to warrant 

 me in giving up space that was so sorely needed for other feathered 

 pets. Nevertheless, although so willing to nest, aviarists in this 

 country have not been particularly successful in breeding Gouldians. 

 True, a few young have been reared ; but the successes have been 

 wholly disproportionate to the number of failures. At first sight, 

 this seems very strange. Here we have a case of the sexes being 

 easily distinguishable, of both sexes being readily obtainable, of birds 

 easily fed, and easily kept in health, requiring no extremes of heat, 

 and not only willing but eager to nest ; and, surely, when one has 

 every thing ready to one's hand like this, there ought not to be much 

 difficulty in breeding and rearing the young, in any place where 

 proper accommodation can be afforded. My experience has taught me 

 that they will nest pretty nearly anywhere, and will make their nests 

 in pretty nearly any thing, and of pretty nearly any thing, in the 

 way of dry grass, that you may like to furnish them with. I have 

 had them nesting on the floor of a large cage, in a tiny cage ; in a 

 covered box, and in an open box ; in a tree, in nothing ! And with 

 a handful or two of hay they will be profoundly content, if you 

 cannot supply them with anything better. Moreover, they will nest 

 in the midst of other birds as freely if not so successfully as they 

 will when alone. I may add that, from preference, they will nest in 

 a high position rather than a lower one. 



" One of the difficulties with others following in its train to be 

 faced in the breeding of these birds is the circumstance that the 

 Gouldian Finch, coming from the south of the equator, usually wants 

 to nest during our winter. Should you allow them to go to nest, say 

 in an artificially heated room, the short dark days, and the London 

 fogs (if, like me, you reside in London town), will probably prove too 

 much for you, and your birds. If you, in your wisdom, put your foot 

 down and say, no, you two shall be kept separate until the warm 

 weather conies, and then will I put you up to nest, lo, they, in their 

 unwisdom, will possibly foil you, when the warm weather does come, 

 by falling into moult. When you have, however, got safely through 



