6o



whole body is a bright yet soft green, the male bird having a

lilac crescent, edged with yellow, across the stomach from thigh

to thigh. The tail feathers, too, are tipped with yellow. But

the chief feature in either sex is a lovely forehead of a colour

which is neither pink nor lilac, but an admixture of both of

these.


They have moulted since I have had them, and have kept

in good health, fed upon boiled potato chopped into small pieces,

as well as an occasional apple, and at times a few grapes, treated

in the same manner.


In the summer time, the male bird became decidedly

fussy when a small open basket, filled with hay, was introduced

into the cage, and showed every inclination to nest.


Both birds are perfectly tame, and with studied petting

would become extremely so. But I am leaving home for four

months, and must in consequence reduce the numbers of my

cage-birds, since I cannot carry them with me, hence the

insertion of my advertisement in the column used for that

purpose, to which I may perhaps be allowed to refer the readers

of my notes. _



CORRESPONDENCE.


BREEDING RESULTS FOR 1895.


Sir,—A s it is possible that some of the readers of the Avicultural

Magazine may care to hear of my breeding operations in the past year, I

have (at the Editors’ suggestion) recorded them, as follows:—-


My first nest was from a pair of Java Sparrows bred in 1S94: I had

put these birds up in a large flight-cage, in January, and four young left the

nest 011 February 15th-16th; a second nest at the end of the same month

was a failure, it contained two young which died when about three days old.

By the middle of May this pair of birds had produced fourteen young, of

which two have died during the present winter. About the same time my

Saffron-finches had produced six young ones which had grown up, but four

or five others had died in consequence of being taken away from their

parents too early ; two of these died when only two or three mouths

old, but were replaced in the meanwhile. During the Autumn the parents

again went to nest, laid and even hatched, but reared nothing.


Meanwhile, I had many mixed pairs put up, with a view to hybridiza¬

tion ; some of these have produced eggs, but none have hatched ; thus

from Canary and Indigo-finch I had eggs which were constantly upset (and

so broken) by the Bunting; from Java-Sparrow and male Ribbon-finch I

had, and still have, eggs ; from Cordou-bleu and Zebra Waxbill I had two

esjsrs, but the hen would not incubate; from Parson-fincli and Zebra-finch

only soft-shelled eggs, which almost killed the lieu several times.


My Canaries produced twenty-eight young, two of which died in



