1 88 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



THE ZEBRA FINCH. 



Tcsniopygia castanotis, GOULD. 



I NHABITS Northern, Western, and Southern Australia, whence it 

 1 is regularly and abundantly imported ; it is hardy, easily bred, and 

 very beautiful. The male has the top of the head, nape, neck, and 

 front of back, pearl-grey, shading into brownish-grey on the hinder 

 part of the back ; croup white, black at the sides ; upper tail-coverts 

 white, regularly banded with black ; lower tail feathers brown ; wings 

 brownish-grey, the flight feathers more or less edged with ashy whitish ; 

 front of face white, edged in front and at base of beak by a black line, 

 and at the back, from below the eye, by a second slightly broader line; 

 a large tawny patch on the cheek ; chin, throat and breast silvery- 

 grey, traversed by numerous black striae, and bounded at the back by 

 a black band ; remainder of under surface, excepting the sides, creamy- 

 white ; the sides chestnut-red, spotted with white. Length 3/5 inches. 

 Beak coral red ; legs red ; iris red. 



The hen differs in the absence of the tawny patch on the cheeks; 

 the much more buff tint of the croup and under surface of the body, 

 the mouse-grey tint of the chin, throat, and breast, from which the 

 black striations and band are absent, and the uniformly greyish sides 

 to the body. Length 31 inches. Beak orange red. 



I found no difficulty in breeding this species, which will build 

 either in a German canary-cage, a travelling cage with the door fixed 

 partly open, a fig-drum with entrance hole at the side, a log-nest, or 

 a cigar-box ; into any of these receptacles it will carry a quantity of 

 hay, moss, feathers, rootlets, sticks, or in fact almost any rubbish, until 

 it has filled up nearly the whole cavity, over-arching the little saucer- 

 shaped depression with hay, straws, and flowering grasses. The Zebra 

 Finch lays from four to seven eggs ; but frequently loses some of these 

 in its eagerness to dash madly out of the nest to repel intruders. In 

 defence of its nest it is utterly devoid of fear, and, when the hen is 

 sitting, the cock bird is usually on guard outside. No sooner does any 

 bird, even though it be a Bullfinch, approach within a yard of the 

 nest, than the little fellow hurls himself furiously at him, and though 

 he may fail to scare the larger bird at the first onslaught, he repeats 

 the attack until the intruder is driven off. 



