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on the Breeding of the Red-headed Finch.


success. Several correspondents have written me about their

Red-headed Finches but without making the difficulty any

clearer to me. One member writes, “My birds have never got

beyond eggs.” A lady member wrote me a very interesting letter

from which I extract the following:—“ I find the Red-headed

Finches are easily disturbed. I did not know of a nest and

found it had two eggs and near hatching.” Another lady

correspondent (not a member) wrote me as follows :—“I am very

much annoyed with my Red-headed Finches which threw three

fine youngsters out of their nest.” This happened, I may add, in

a bird-room and may perhaps be due to some defect of the

indoor system, although I read in a certain weekly Fanciers’

paper that the latter is the correct system for breeding foreigners,

as in outdoor aviaries the young are so frequently drowned (sic.).


I had a pair of this species in 1905 which sat with the

regularity and consistency of a Hearson’s Incubator, but never

managed to produce any fertile eggs—the cause being, I think,

the delicacy of the hen which died in the late autumn.


I obtained a new hen in January of this year, which made

a bad commencement, becoming egg - bound and laying some

soft eggs. However she recovered, and from that time forward

either she or her partner were sitting, I may say, continuously

in their own particular nest box. During the day time the male

seemed to do as much sitting as the hen, taking spells of about

an hour each. From time to time they added to the nest until

at last the box became so full of hay that the Red-heads—being

birds of somewhat portly habit—found considerable difficulty in

getting in or out. Both birds were exceedingly tame.


About the middle of April I examined the nest and found

that it contained two eggs. I examined it again about a mouth

later and again found two eggs. I extracted one and, finding that

it rattled, I concluded they must be the same eggs and removed

them. This proved however to be a mistake, for, on blowing

them, one egg proved to be not only fertile but on the point of

hatching. The next box was found to contain alternate layers

of eggs and nesting material. The eggs varied considerably in

size, the largest being -8i and the smallest 70 in greatest

diameter. They are pure white in colour.



