366 on Nesting of the Scaly-fronted Finch,


length the psychological moment arrived : someone (in a weekly

paper) actually tried to persuade the unwary beginner to attempt

to induce insectivorous birds to rear their young on farina¬

ceous food. Then he spoke up and, although he was involved

in a somewhat acrimonious correspondence, it is within his

knowledge that he did good. The acrimony was unfortunate,

but anyone who tries to wake up aviculture from its long

slumber must be prepared both to give and take a hard blow;

he will not find it an easy task. Now if any unwary beginner should

read these lines, let him, for once in a way, disregard the advice of

the Food-specialist and the Expert, and take the advice of a fool,

who is at least wise enough to realise his own folly : let him treat

all hard-billed birds during the nesting season as either wholly

insectivorous, or as insectivorous plus vegetarian, species, and I

think he will not regret it.


The young Scaly-fronted Finch, when he leaves the nest, is

remarkably like an adult ; the black areas on the wings are duller

and the wider buffislr-white margins of the secondaries make the

wings look lighter ; the moustachial streaks are smaller and

narrower. The only conspicuous point of difference is in the mark¬

ing of the forehead ; where the adult wears the scaly feathers from

which it derives its popular name, the immature bird has a small

patch of brown feathers. It also lacks the black area between the

beak and eye.


The call-notes are “ soo-sook ” ; “ chit-chit-chit.”


P.S.—The upper figure in the photograph is the male of the

pair illustrated : notice his large moustachial streaks, from which

the species obtains its German popular name, Schnurrhartfink

(Schnurrbdrtchen, Russ,) ; notice also his bent tail, from which it

may be inferred that he has been recently incubating. Both sexes

share the duties of incubation. This species is by no means easy

to sex and it is generally safer to take the style and demeanour of

individuals as a guide rather than the plumage. The young

show the first few scaly feathers on the forehead about fourteen

days after leaving the nest.



