196 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 



approaching to the cackle of a little hen ; I only heard a slight 

 whispering, with single, clear-sounding cries. 



The song, as above described, is essentially that of a Grass- finch, 

 not of an Astrild, and strongly tends to confirm my opinion as to the 

 natural affinities of the species. The call-note is that of Tceniopygia. 



Wiener says : " They have been constant inmates of my aviary 

 for years, and lived from April to the end of October in the open air. 

 A temperature of 50 degrees to 55 degrees sufficed in winter. But it 

 grieved me a long time that I could not induce these birds to build ; 

 they left every kind of nest-box and nest material unnoticed. At last 

 I obtained some very hard aloe fibre, and this seemed to please the 

 Double-banded Finches, for they busied themselves at once with it, and 

 soon built a large ball in the crest of an Arbor Vitse. The ball was 

 nearly as cleverly constructed as a Weaver-bird's nest, had a very small 

 entrance at the side, and formed a capital nest, in which four or five 

 pure white eggs were laid and hatched, in the usual time of thirteen 

 to fifteen days. The young brood is not at all difficult to rear. Millet 

 and maw seed soaked in hot water and strained, a little egg food, some 

 soaked ants' eggs, and a few mealworms are ample." 



Wiener usually recommends scalded seeds and ants' eggs for rearing 

 the Ornamental Finches. When I first began to breed the Dwarf 

 Finches, I frequently introduced a saucer of both into the aviary, in 

 addition to the usual seeds, canary, white millet, millet in the ear, and 

 grass seed. On no single occasion did any species, whether breeding 

 or not, touch any of the scalded seed or ants' eggs, they one and all 

 utterly ignored it, as though it had been dirt. On the other hand, 

 when breeding, they greedily devour any kind of egg-food, chickweed, 

 and unripe grass-seed. As for mealworms, very few of the Ornamental 

 Finches in my bird-room ever ate them ; but small spiders, flies killed 

 and thrown on the sand, or the small white larvae of one of the meal- 

 moths (Ephestia kuhniellaj , they devoured eagerly. I do not believe 

 that insect-food is essential to the successful rearing of these tiny 

 Finches ; many of them are able to bring up their young on seed 

 alone ; and, with the addition of grass in seed, and Abrahams' " Food 

 for Insectivorous Birds," I believe that any of them may be bred in a 

 suitable temperature. Perhaps the best means of providing a little 

 natural insect food is, to have a good patch of fresh turf always in the 

 aviary when breeding is going on : it is marvellous to see how a square 

 yard of turf, placed in one corner, is instantly covered by a host of 

 tiny foragers. The minute spiders, beetles, flies, and many other living 

 things which abound in a growing turf, are far more natural food for 



