BIRDS. 63 



meals, and can, under such conditions, be easily shut in for transport or temporary 

 confinement when any special necessity may arise. Notably among these fortunately 

 unfrequent occasions must be reckoned that veritable dies irce to the scientist or 

 practical naturalist known as "cleaning-down" day, when both he and his avian or 

 other living pets must, like Br'er Fox, lie low, or altogether abandon their camp to 

 the hands of the enemy. 



Although many attempts have been made to breed these Gouldian finches 

 in captivity in this country, the successes have been very few and far between. 

 Coming from the Antipodes, their summer, or breeding season, is usually our winter, 

 and the female birds, being particularly susceptible to ovarian disorders, resulting 

 from cold, commonly succumb at this critical period. As an example of their fertility, 

 it may, however, be mentioned that one female of the black-headed race in the 

 writer's possession laid no less than sixteen eggs. The first of these were deposited 

 at intervals of one or two days only, but the latter ones with intervening periods 

 of as much as a whole week. This little bird apparently overtaxed, her strength, 

 being found dead one morning soon after the deposit of her sixteenth egg. The 

 most successful instance of the Gouldian finches breeding in this country is that given 

 by Mr. Reginald Phillips in Dr. Butler's Monograph, and is hereunder summarized. A 

 pair of the scarlet-headed species built a large domed nest of fine grass, with an 

 aperture nearly at the top, in a dead tree affixed in a large aviary-cage. The first 

 egg was laid on the 5th May, 1891, the last on the 9th, when the hen commenced 

 to sit in earnest, the cock taking her place when she came off to feed. The first young 

 voice was heard on the 24th May, and on the 16th June two young birds in full feather 

 were enticed out of the nest by their mother. An examination of the nest on the 

 following day revealed the presence of a third young bird and three clear eggs. The 

 birds while nesting fed on spray and white millet and a little canary seed, and fed 

 their young by regurgitating this food from their crops. These young birds, on their 

 first appearance, were a dull olive green, with horn-coloured beaks, and were fed 

 by the mother until able to take care of themselves. The first moult of these 

 English-born birds took place when they were a year old, May, 1892 ; the hen's face 

 became black with a brick-red sort of tinge, and that of the cock bird remained a dull 

 greyish green, ^except for the presence of a few red feathers dotted here and there. In 

 the second moult, 1893, both the cock and hen developed typical scarlet faces, that 

 of the hen, however, being still much mixed with black. It was also only with this 

 second moult that the male bird developed his characteristic long central tail feathers. 



