o?i the Vicissitudes of Bird- Keeping. 91


On the 20th I received a cage of interesting finches from

an unknown friend, apparently a sea-captain, to whom I have no

clue excepting that his Christian name is Robert. The consign-

ment comprised two pairs of Munia flaviprymna, one pair and a

blind female of M. pectoralis, one female Poephila gouldice, one male

Pytelia emini (interesting on account of the broader and darker

grey-brown bars of the under tail - coverts, which distinguish

it to the eye from P. phoenicoptera without looking beneath its

wings). Captain Shelley does not consider P. e??iini to be a

distinct species, but it is certainly a pleasing local form.


I thus commenced the season with five pairs of Munia

flaviprymna, of which I put one pair outside, one pair in a large

flight, two pairs in an indoor aviary ; one female broke its wing

and subsequently drowned itself and the odd male I kept in a

store-cage : none of these birds went to nest.


On March 20th the hen Chinese Quail began to lay and

continued right up to the middle of September first in one place

then in another; not sitting steadily excepting once, when the

eggs had already been laid too long to hatch : altogether at least

forty eggs were deposited.


On May 19th I had another piece of good fortune : — our

Member Miss Gladstone very kindly ordered a pair of Violet-

eared Waxbills from Mr. Hamlyn as a present for me. I turned

them into my smaller outdoor aviary where they flew about

happily enough ; but in the evening they persisted in roosting

under the open wire-work at the end of the aviary where all the

neighbours' cats delight in congregating : I therefore laid a large

piece of stained glass over the wire-work and this induced them

to settle elsewhere.


On the 21st the female Violet-ear dropped dead in the act

of flight from no apparent cause ; the male however looked

healthy until the afternoon of the 26th when I noticed it asleep

on a branch ; I therefore caught it and discovered that it must

have been fighting, as its head was rather badly pecked: I

brought it indoors, but it died on the 27th.


My Bronzewinged Pigeons went to nest in May, and con-

tinued to lay and sit up to September, invariably breaking their

eggs as usual : the male is rather heavy-footed, doubtless an old



