103


RARE FOREIGN BIRDS.


VIII.


PRINGILLA TEYDEA. “THE TEYDEAN CHAFFINCH.'’


By E. G. B. Meade-Waldo.


An account of this beautiful Chaffinch as an aviary bird, may be of

Interest to some readers of the Avicultural Magazine , especially as owing to

its rarity, and being confined in its wild state to one pine forest on one small

island, it is never very likely to become general as an aviary bird.


For the benefit of those who happen to be unacquainted with the

Teydean Chaffinch. I will describe it as follows: It is a true Chaffinch,

about, twice the size of our own Common Chaffinch, the “tarsi” and tail

are both longer in proportion, and the beak more powerful and larger.

The whole of the upper parts of the male are rich dark blue, the under

parts paler blue, fading to almost white on the abdomen, the under tail

coverts are white, as also are the eye lids. The wings and tail are very dark

blue, almost black, edged with light blue. All the markings on the wings

and tail that are white or yellowish in the Common Chaffinch are replaced

in F. teydea by^ light blue. The female is an olive brown edition of the male,

and slightly^ smaller in size.


Although coming from a hot dry- climate, F. teydea is absolutely- hardy.

Those in mv aviaries never showed that they felt the slightest inconvenience

from the last cold weather, or that of any- winter. The males have been in

full song since the first of February, and I have seen them singing lustily,

fully exposed to a N. E. gale, with the temperature at 23 0 , although they

could retire into perfect shelter if they liked. When in their native forest

they very rarely come lower than 5,000 feet above sea level.


The Teydean Chaffinch thrives in a large aviary, with moderate

shelter. The males are exceedingly pugnacious, and no other small bird can

exist with them, except perhaps for a short time in the autumn and earlv

wiuter. The males are also very rough with their own females, except during

the pairing and nesting season, and it is best to keep the females together,

and each male separate, for two males in the same aviary would certainlv

fight until one killed the other. The female builds a beautiful nest in June,

resembling the nest of our own Common Chaffinch, but, of course, much

larger ; also the outer work of the nest often contains a few pine needles or

twigs of tree heath. The eggs are laid at the end of June, or beginning of

July, and never exceed two in number. They are large for the size of the

bird, and closely- resemble strongly marked eggs of the Common Bullfinch

in colour. The young, when first hatched, are covered with thick black

down, far thicker than the down on the nBwly-hatched Common Chaffinch.

The male takes no part whatever in nest-building, or in feeding the young,

and never feeds the female; on the contrary-, he always robs her whenever

he gets the chance. Their behaviour, when nesting in an aviary, is precisely

similar to that in a wild state, but I think it advisable to remove the male

■during the period of rearing the young, as he does nothing but try- to take

the food from the hen. The young are reared on caterpillars and

various larvae, also mealworms that have newly cast their skins, grasshoppers,

crickets, moths, etc. The females are exceedingly confiding, and will take

food from the hand when sitting on the nest. The wild birds are just the

same, and will build their nest while you are sitting on the same branch.

The song of the Teydean Chaffinch resembles that of all the Chaffinches,

but is more prolonged and has more volume ; the call note is a plaintive

double note, but they also say, “ Pink, Pink,” like our own bird. Their food

in confinement consists of pine seed, sunflower, hemp and monkey nuts.

They do not care for canary or millet, but occasionally- eat a little of the

latter.


They seem to require a great deal of insect food, and mine always

have as many mealworms as they want, in addition to caterpillars, moths,

numerous daddy--long-legs, etc. They- also eat watercress and chick-

weed. So pugnacious are the males that this spring I had to remove one



