io6



Rev. C. D. Farrar,



the domestic Gold and Silver Pheasants, in addition to their great

beauty, recommend themselves by exhibiting variations of great

scientific interest; for such as I have above drawn attention to

would be regarded as at least of subspecific value, if found

occurring locally in Pheasants in a state of nature.



THE BREEDING OF THE “ RUFICAUDA.”


By the Rev. C. D. Farrar.


Years ago I w r as looking in the window of a London bird

shop, when I saw two small birds in a cage that I, at any rate,

had never seen before. They were sage green on top, with red

masks and curious little white-ringed spots all over the upper

part of their breasts. I looked them up in a book and found

the} 7 were Rufous-tailed Grassfinclies from Australia. The price

was something too awful. I believe the man (it was near Port¬

land Road) asked -£5 for the pair. It was many years ago, mind.

Now the price is just as absurdly low.


Bathilda ruficauda is a bird calculated to fill the harvest

of a quiet eye, but would not please those who prefer the painful

and gaudy colours of a Macaw.


For years I have never been without some Rufous-tails ;

and many years ago I should have got the medal for being the

first to breed them but for a bit of ill luck. I kept my then

Ruficaudas in a big garden aviary full of growing bushes. Here,

in due course, they made a beautiful nest in a bush, but it was

about as frail as the lady’s hat of to-day. I may say, in passing,

that my birds never made a nest anywhere else, in fact they would

never look at German cages or cocoa-nut husks. The eggs were

duly hatched, and all went swimmingly for the first eight days.

I could already feel that medal. The youngsters were fully

fledged and just ready to fly, when one afternoon there came on

such rain that, as a friend said to me grimly, “it seemed as if the

angels were emptying buckets out of the sky.” Several of these

buckets descended on the poor frail little nest, and when I went

to look, there was only a sodden lump of hay, and five little

dead Ruficaudas. As I brought them into the house I felt like



