1 92 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



evinces a decided preference for those spots where the trees are thinly 

 dispersed and grasses abundant." 



That is all that Mr. Gould was able to tell us about the habits 

 of this common bird in a wild state. Mr. North, however, gives the 

 following account : 



" The Chestnut-eared Finch is found breeding in companies in the 

 neighbourhood of Lachlan and the Darling Rivers, during September 

 and the two following months. It constructs a flask-shaped nest of 

 dried grass, stems, &c., and it is placed in the branches of a low tree 

 or thick bush. Eggs five or six in number for a sitting, in colour 

 faint bluish white ; a set now before me taken by Mr. James Ramsey, 

 at Tyndarie, in October, 1879, has one specimen with a distinct and 

 well-defined baud of blue round the centre of the egg ; this is the 

 only occasion I have ever seen any variation from the typical egg of 

 the species." 



The foregoing note gives us an explanation of the bluish tint, 

 which on more than one occasion Mr. North has mentioned in the 

 eggs of these Grass-finches ; he describes from blown specimens in the 

 cabinet. Many white eggs, especially if thinly shelled, show a bluish 

 tint when emptied of their contents ; it is not a colour, but merely due 

 to the transparency of the shell. When freshly deposited in the nest, 

 the eggs of all the Ornamental Finches are pure white ; the yolk 

 casting either a pinkish or yellowish tinge over the whole centre, owing 

 to the transparency of the shell ; a " bluish," or thin belt round the 

 centre, would probably appear as rosy orange in the nest. 



On October i8th, 1895, a nest of five Zebra Finches flew in my 

 unheated aviary ; a fortnight later, the parents built again in a furze- 

 bush, and the hen laid three eggs ; the nest, however, was too near to 

 the wire front of the aviary, and the hen thus was so frequently dis- 

 turbed that she deserted them. I have not, however, found the Zebra 

 Finch at all liable to desert its nest, because of the latter being examined 

 once during incubation. 



Illustrations from living examples and skins in the author's 

 collection. 



