THE



Bvicultural /ilbagasttte,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. III. — NO. 35. All rights reserved. SEPTEMBER, 1897.



SQUATTING GRASS-FINCHES ; OR, SOUR GRAPES.


By Reginald Phillipps.


A member complains that we do not send accounts of our

nesting experiences to the Magazine. I have had a nesting

experience in my garden which I do not understand, and shall

be obliged if this or any other member of the community will

explain the matter. The point which exercises my mind is

this : Have I found out something new, entitling me to any

number of gold medals, or have I found a — Mare’s Nest?

In the latter case I should not advance a claim for the medal,

for the nest has been found before ;—though never before, I am

satisfied, has it been so eloquently described as it will have been

described when I shall have finished this paper.


On May 4th last, I obtained four Grass-finches, two, I

think a pair, of the rare and graceful Tong-tailed species,

Poephila acuticaudci, the other two, of uncertain sex, of the

possibly more rare but certainty less graceful Masked species,

P. personcita.


These four birds I placed in a 4ft. long aviary-cage in my

dining-room, and looked for them to nest, but the} 7 did not nest.

I then took to leaving the door of their cage occasionally open

in order that they might fly about ; but again I was disappointed

—they did not fly about. In the bow - window there is a

large, I think I may say a very large, Blue Gum tree ; I have

indeed read in books that larger are known to grow in Australia,

but then writers must speak big in books or no one would buy

them. Any way, during the spring, numbers of little Finches

had been disporting themselves in this tree ; and I naturally

expedted that these Grass-finches would go and do likewise—

but they didn’t ; they would do nothing but squat, and would

squat any where and every where but in the Blue Gum. At first

they squatted on the window-sills ; when I drove them from



