THE



Bxucultural /Hbagastne,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. V. — NO. 50. All rights reserved. DECEMBER, 1898.



ON THE ORNAMENTATION OF THE MOUTH IN

THE YOUNG G 0 ULD 1 AN FINCH.


( Poeph ila m ira b il is J .


By Arthur G. Butlhr, Pli.D.


On September 24th I received a box from our member

Mr. W. H. St. Ouintin, containing four young of the Red-headed

variety of the Gouldian Finch, with an expression of his wish

that I should describe them for the Magazine.


The birds, as I subsequently learnt, were hatched on the

15th of the mouth, or possibly a day or two earlier (in a covered

nest-box). The mother died on the 6th, but an unattached

Black - headed hen undertook incubation jointly with the

surviving male parent. The latter died on the 17th, and the

Black-headed foster-parent continued to feed the young until

the 23rd, when she also died ; the nestlings consequently expired

from cold on the same day, their crops still containing seed

when they reached me.


One of the peculiarities of these squabs is the total naked¬

ness of their bodies, and that too at so advanced an age ; but in

this respect they do not stand alone in the family Ploceidce, for

Dr. Russ comments upon the complete and repulsive bareness

of the young of the African Silver-bill. The most interesting

feature, however, in this species consists in the striking and

peculiar ornamentation of the outside and inside of the mouth,

the object of which, as it seemed to me, must be to enable the

parents to feed the young in the partial obscurity of the nest;

but the suggestion was made, by one to whom I showed the

young birds, that should a small snake insert its head into the

nest, it would be unable to recognize its prey in nestlings so

startlingly ornamented.



