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rearing two broods to fledging, tells me that he adopted the

anti-insedlivorous diet above described, giving also bread and

milk. His young birds did not live to grow up—the first brood

being killed by a storm, the second by other birds—but he came

nearer to success than any other English aviculturist that I can

hear of. I have had no opportunity of experimenting personally,

as this species has never hatched in my aviarjq although my hen

laid and sat her full time.


Mr. Sergeant’s birds were kept in a very large outdoor

aviary; they ‘‘built in a spruce fir, a neat structure of small pine

branches, roots, &c., lined with beech leaves.” Mine laid in a

strawberry basket. In fadt this bird will build almost anywhere.


Newly-imported Virginian Cardinals often die from in¬

juring their heads against the top of the cage when startled, and

when kept in a cage, tame birds will sometimes kill themselves

in the same way. If it be necessary to cage a bird of this species,

it should, unless quite tame and reconciled to a cage, be kept in

a cage with a canvass top.


If suitably fed, the Virginian Cardinal is a healthy bird in

captivity, and sometimes attains a very considerable age. It is

indifferent to cold, and will live out of doors through the severest

winters.


The habitat of the true Ccirdincilis cardi?ialis is said to

be the “Eastern United States, north to New Jersey, and the

Ohio Valley (casualty further), west to the plains.” Three very

similar species, sub-species, or varieties are found in California

and Mexico, the males being indistinguishable from Cardinalis

cardincilis, but the females differing somewhat from the common

species. the end.



REVIEWS.


Foreign Finches in Captivity , Parts IX. a?id X., by Arthur G.

Bzctler , Ph.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S. (L. Reeve and Co .,

6, Henrietta Street , Covent Garden.)


These two parts treat of the remaining species of Whydahs

and the Weavers, and bring the work to a conclusion. We need

say very little more than that the expectations raised by the

earlier parts of “ Foreign Finches” have been full}' realized, and

that the concluding parts show no falling off either in the quality

of the letterpress or of the illustrations. The birds described in

Part IX. are the Paradise, Eong-tailed, Red-throated, and Yellow-

backed Whydahs, and the Yellow-shouldered and Napoleon

Weavers.



