1 86 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



In the bird-room a pair of Ribbon Finches at the nesting-season make 

 a tremendous disturbance ; destroy many other nests, before they nest 

 in one of them ; it is advisable, therefore, only to breed them in a 

 cage. Peaceable, as soon as incubation has commenced, also harmless 

 and sociable in the aviary. They are among the best of cage-birds, 

 yet many a pair in many broods throws the young out of the nest ; 

 I suggest depriving young pairs of their first laying ; Dr. Stolker 

 separated the male, but kept it in the same room ; the female then 

 brought up the young alone. Song a wonderful humming with 

 comical curtseying movements." 



In the case of my pair when nesting, only the odd young one 

 was thrown out of the nest, so that males and females in equal 

 numbers were reared : but whether this was designedly the case, or 

 the young died a natural death, I could not tell. One of the young 

 ones had been dead for some days before the parents threw it out of 

 the nest, but, nevertheless, it is possible that they may have killed it. 



Von Heuglin, writing of the Ribbon Finch as observed in North- 

 east Africa, says : " Observed by me during and after the rainy 

 season up to December. In September it assembles in little flocks 

 and crowds about in the Steppes, quite after the manner of Sparrows, 

 particularly in the vicinity of the desert-streams, where the birds 

 delight in collecting upon isolated trees during the mid-day hours. 

 They also wander about in crowds in the tall grass, in hedges, 

 gardens and among the rocks and fragmentary stones of trampled 

 down thickets. They also like to descend to the earth and bathe in 

 the sand." 



Von Heuglin also quotes Antinori's authority for the fact that 

 the Ribbon Finch breeds in August and the beginning of September. 

 " Song and behaviour recalls the Field-Sparrow, but the former is not 

 so loud and more agreeable. The call-note is a chirp." 



The nearly allied Red-headed Finch (A. erythrocephahisj is much 

 less frequently imported, and, therefore, commands a considerably 

 higher price. Its general aspect is very similar to that of the Ribbon 

 Finch and the sexes differ in much the same manners; it is somewhat 

 larger, and the male bird has the head and upper throat crimson ; in 

 the female the head is brown, slightly tinted with red, but the throat 

 is white with narrow transverse bars. Messrs. Sharpe and L,ayard 

 give the following account of its habits : 



" Sir A. Smith found this species only in the neighbourhood of 

 Latakoo, feeding in the native gardens and congregated together in 

 considerable numbers. We have received it from Kuruinan and Coles- 



