42 On the breeding of the Tropical Seed-Finch.


thought that he would not survive. I was mistaken, however, for he

recovered and has now lived here all these five years.


The male has a very nice song, and when he is courting the

female he displays in various ways with wings and tail. He will also

jump into the air whilst he is singing.


The female is of a pale milk-chocolate colour all over. Both

have very short and powerful bills.


Since their safe arrival at Gooilust I have kept the birds

during the summer in a small aviary in the garden, with other

small birds, and in winter in the bird-house.


This season, having an unoccupied compartment in a garden

aviary, I thought I would give them a chance to breed, and put the

pair of birds into it with no other ones to disturb them.


They seemed to like this privacy very much, becoming very

lively, and the male sang from morning till night. The first attempt

at breeding was a clear egg laid on the bare board in a nesting-box

with no attempt at a nest.


After this, thinking that there was something wrong with the

nesting-site and material, I put up a kind of witch-broom made out

of a birch, in which I had formed a cup-shaped hollow, against one

of the sides of the aviary.


As nesting material I gave a lot of rootlets and fine branches,

adding some feathers.


It seems that this new arrangement suited the birds, for they

at once took possession of the witch-broom, and the female built a

shallow nest in it with the rootlets and fine branches, finishing off

with a few feathers.


As I found out later three eggs were laid, which were spotted

with brown and purple, and were not unlike Sparrows’ eggs.


How long the female incubated I cannot say, but after about

three weeks the voice of a baby was heard occasionally, and the

female caught all the small insects she could get.


I had given her fresh ants’ eggs as well, and with one and the

other, and probably later or also with the help of seed, the youngster

grew very well, and after not many days left the nest looking like a

stumpy miniature of an owl, as it could not boast of much of a tail.

Although it could fly it spent its first days of comparative inde-



