176 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



tail black ; the two central feathers pointed and terminating in a short 

 bristle ; under parts of body light rufons-brown ; the chin, throat and 

 fore-chest occupied by a large black patch ; vent and under tail-coverts 

 white ; under wing-coverts pale rufous-brown ; nights dull-brown below, 

 slightly rufous along the inner edges : Length 4 A inches ; beak black, 

 legs salmon-pink, iris reddish brown. 



The hen differs from the cock in its slightly narrower head, 

 which is rather less white in colour (the greyer tint being especially 

 noticeable when the pair are on the ground side by side ;) the black 

 gorget on the throat and fore-chest distinctly smaller. 



I have had, altogether, about nine pairs of this species. It is 

 quite hardy, but the hens, even though they at first may lay shelled 

 eggs, seem invariably to die in the end through egg-binding. Some- 

 times a fortunate aviculturist will pull off a brood or two, but the 

 cock birds are so restless and so fond of building that they frequently 

 disturb the sitting hens before incubation is completed ; this was 

 incessantly the case with the last pair which I purchased (in January, 

 1897), the hen being conducted from one breeding-site to another, a 

 nest carefully built and one or at most two eggs deposited, when the 

 nest was immediately pulled to pieces and carried elsewhere. Eventually 

 the hen died egg-bound. 



Dr. Russ calls this the " Girdle-Grass-Finch," and says of it : 

 " At present partly through importation, partly through breeding, a 

 common sight in bird- rooms ; first imported into Germany in 1869, by 

 Karl Hagenbeck, and then disappeared for two years from the bird- 

 market. Nearly allied to the Diamond-Finch and resembling it in 

 figure and size, as also in its noticed peculiar water-drinking, &c., it 

 is yet seen to be quite different in colouring and behaviour. 



"Unlike the Diamond- Finch in its greater gracefulness and 

 activity, it often utters a little song, with continual comical head- 

 wagging, including a prolonged call-note. The female, likewise, 

 wagging her head, nevertheless does not sing. Almost every pair, 

 immediately after its arrival in the bird-room, as in the breeding-cage, 

 begins a nest of dry bents, bast, agave fibres, little roots, cotton and 

 other threads ; spherical, somewhat more skilful than that of the 

 Diamond bird, in a Hartz cage with lined basket-nest, or in a similar 

 contrivance, lined with little patches of wadding and feathers ; many 

 pairs breed easily and productively, in several broods, with layings of 

 four to six, even nine, to as much as twelve eggs ; others, with the 

 best intentions, make numerous failures in breeding. Duration of 

 incubation twelve days. 



