food when there are young in the nest, though some pairs will

bring up their young on seed alone. Some aviculturists assert

paddy rice to be essential, but I have never found it so, and it is

certainly rather expensive and difficult to obtain ; and, if fed as

indicated above, they will remain in the best of health and bring

up brood after brood (green food and grit, of course, being sup-

plied in addition). I would recommend that aviary-bred birds

be procured (though they are double the price of imported ones),

as the wild-caught birds do not nest readily in captivity. And

though there are exceptions which do so, these generally choose

the winter (and then, out of doors, the young are seldom reared),

and usually only after being a year or two in their quarters, while

aviary-bred birds nest as readily as Canaries — even more so, for

they are excellent feeders. Out of doors they will usually rear

three broods in the season, but in an indoor aviary, slightly

heated, I should say they would go on breeding all the year

round, only stopping for the moult ; but I have only kept them

out of doors.


Nesting accommodation : They like a box, closed on all

sides, with a hole for entrance, or a cocoanut husk — mine always

choose the box. I generally get a dry soap powder box, which

is about eighteen inches by nine inches, and six inches deep,

with a wire-hinged lid ; insert two partitions ; tack down the lid ;

cut in it three holes ; fix a perch in front of each ; and I then

have three nests for about a penny, in which, according to my

experience, the birds will nest side by side, and not interfere one

with the other, save in defending their own apartment and the

perch in front of it. Fine hay is all they require for nesting

material.


The period of nidification I cannot give with certainty, as

it is so difficult to tell when they begin sitting, but I believe it to

be thirteen or fourteen days ; the young usually fly at about four

weeks ; and are well able to feed themselves at six weeks, though

they importune the old birds for food, till at last they lose

patience and drive them off".


They must not be meddled with : inquisitiveness — laudable

though it be — is incompatible with the successful breeding of

foreign birds, or British either, with very few exceptions. I

have constru-cted my small garden aviary with small doors and

flaps, so that I can refill the hoppers, change the water, and

scrape out the floor all from the outside, only having to go inside

once a year for the renewal of perches, etc. I have always found

Java Sparrows to be quite harmless, though they will not let



