292



Correspondence, Notes, etc.



British Museum Catalogue of Birds, except that the latter species is said

to have the “lores aud a narrow line above the nostrils along the base of

the forehead, a small mark at the base of the cheeks, and the chin black.”

But the true Virginian Cardinal and its sub-species all have the bill red,

C. phceniceus being the only species in which this is horn-coloured.—E d.]


COCKATOOS, PAINTED QUAIES AND GOULDIAN FINCHES.


Sir, — I wonder if you would very kindly give me some advice about

our Cockatoo, which we have had for eleven years. Until now we have

believed it to be a cock bird, but, after being very restless and playful all the

evening, she suddenly to our very great surprise laid an egg, and now seems

anxious to sit on it at the bottom of the cage. Could you tell me if it

would be the slightest use for us to get a cock bird and turn them out into

an aviary. She is of the Great Sulphur species, and we brought her from

Australia ourselves eleven years ago, aud she was then supposed to be

three years old.


I have also got a pair of Japanese Painted Quails, and the hen has

been sitting for thirteen days. If she should be lucky enough to hatch

out any young birds is there any special food the}' should have ? These

birds I brought over from Australia just a year ago myself.


I have got a Gouldian sitting on three eggs, and she had just hatched

out one bird, but the cold last night has killed her, and I am sorry to say

my other three Gouldians look sickly owing to this sudden cold, so lam

giving them heat again to-night. As they were bred in this aviary last

October I did not like to remove them now.


Margaret A. Feieding.


The following reply has been sent to Miss Feilding :—


All depends upon the strength of the aviary : for, as Mr. Wiener said

in our Magazine in 1S96—“ The larger kind (of Cockatoos) are so powerful

that nothing but steel bars and cast iron seems able to resist their beaks.”

Undoubtedly you would require wire as strong as that used in the manu¬

facture of Parrot-cages.


A barrel with a good-sized hole bored at one end for entrance would

be a suitable breeding receptacle.


In choosing a male, select a bird with darker eyes than your bird has.


P'or feeding the young I should recommend boiled maize; but it is

possible, as with the Parralceets, that soaked bread squeezed as dry as

possible might answer the purpose. Mr. Meade-Waldo, who was the first

to breed the Chinese Painted Quail supplied them with living ants’eggs

and maw-seed, and they also had seeds of weeds; Mr. Seth-Smith I think

gives yolk of egg in addition.


It is odd that your Gouldian Finches should have suffered from the

cold: the night frosts (which one certainly does not expect to see in the

middle of May) have not affected mine, but they have not yet attempted

to breed. Our member Mr. Page keeps his birds in an outdoor aviary all



