174 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



same as it was when in his nest feathers, viz : dull greyish green, 

 except a few red feathers dotted here and there, which gave him a 

 most extraordinary appearance. The centre feathers of his tail also 

 did not grow to their full length until the second moult last year, 

 when both cock and hen assumed the scarlet on their faces ; but the 

 colors, all through, are not so bright, as yet, as an imported specimen's ; 



and the hen's face is largely covered still with black Last 



August they paired, and the hen built a slovenly sort of nest in a 

 branch of furze, which I placed in their cage, and laid five eggs 

 during the first week of September ; but the nest was, unfortunately, 

 so badly constructed that two of the eggs fell through the bottom and 

 were broken. She never attempted to incubate the others, so I 

 removed them, and placed them under a canary, which had at the 

 time her 4th nest in the season, but she forsook the eggs before the 

 time was up, so I was not successful in hatching any young ones. I 



broke one of the three eggs and found it fertile They 



spend the winter indoors in an ordinary canary's breeding cage ; but 

 in the summer they have to themselves a large cage, made purposely 

 for them, about 5 ft. x 4ft., which is in an outdoor bird-room, where 

 they can get plenty of fresh air. Their food has been entirely millet 

 and a little canary, millet sprays, and daily, when I could get it, a 

 bunch of the flowering heads of ordinary lawn grass, of which they 

 are particularly fond. Last year, when they seemed inclined to breed, 

 I gave them some of the fresh eggs of the small red ant, and they 

 seemed to enjoy them thoroughly, searching for them most diligently 

 amongst the sand of their cage. I have had to give up most of my 

 birds owing to want of time to look after them, but these I shall 

 never part with.' On the ayth April, 1894, Mr. Roberts writes 

 further : ' It occurs to me that in a wild state it is possible that the 

 young male may get the red on his face at the first moult. In the 

 case of the one I got from you, some of his feathers came that colour ; 

 and it is my opinion that the remaining feathers of the face were not 

 moulted at all until the second year, and that, had they been changed, 

 they would all have come of the adult colour.' 



" Since writing the foregoing, I have noticed a few lines that 

 were written by the Secretary of the United Kingdom Foreign Cage 

 Bird Society, in 1892 : ' I now have a Red-head that, two years ago, 

 I got with some five others imported in their nest feathers, sold to 

 me as Black-heads. Of the six, four turned out Black-heads and 

 two Red-heads.' This statement hardly supports the theory that the 

 Reds and the Blacks are one and the same, or, at any rate, that each 



