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Mr. W. R. Temple,



I got my small stock of birds together last autumn and

this spring. They consisted of what I believed to be three pairs

of Parrot Finches, one pair of Long-tailed Grassfinches, one pair

of Masked Finches, six pairs of Gouldians (mostly Red-headed

cocks), one pair of Pintailed Nonpareils, two pairs of Ruficaudas,

and some small fry in the shape of two pairs of Orange-cheeked

Waxbills, a pair of Amaduvades, a pair of Cordon Bleus and a

pair of African Firefinches.


I next devoured all the articles I could come across in the

Aviculhiral Magazine . and among others, one written by Mrs.

Johnstone, in which she said that “ to breed Parrot Finches they

must have an aviary to themselves.” Up to the end of March

my six Parrot Finches were all together, and they seemed to

spend most of their time in fighting and chasing each other

about. When several Parrot Finches are together I think I have

discovered an infallible method of distinguishing the pairs. I

have a box cage hung up, with a sliding front of wire bars,

heavily weighted. This drops very freely into a groove. I raise

it up and fasten it with a long cord, and put all the seed pans

inside. I then watch for a Parrot Finch to go inside. He (or

she) is presently joined by another. If they are a pair they will

proceed to quietly eat out of the same pan and down goes the

trap ; if they are not a pair one at once chases the other out.

Acting on this principle I put one pair of Parrot Finches in A,

another in B, all the other birds in C, except the Gouldians,

Pintailed Nonpareils, a pair of Cordon Bleus and the other pair

of Parrot Finches, which I put in D. I hung up a number of

nest boxes and a few cocoanut husks in the inside part of the

aviaries only ; and every evening, just before dusk, all the birds

were driven in. This I did not do at first, but one night a

terrific thunderstorm killed several Gouldians, and others were

frightened to death by the ubiquitous cat.


Inside A and B there were three boxes, and these the two

pairs of Parrot Finches at once commenced to stuff full of hay.

They continued to make nests and pull them to pieces till the

beginning of June, when they commenced to sit in earnest.

Those in A made their nest in a box very high up at the top of

the aviary, and those in B in a box within 3 ft. of the ground. I



