on Questions touching the Be?igalee. ior


a pair of the latter, recently bred by himself, on October 23rd last.

Is this tendencj' to reproduce U. acuticauda an indication that

the latter (and not U. striata) is the real ancestor of the Bengalee?

If so, why is it that some of the dark brown and white examples

of the Bengalee so much more closely resemble typical U. striata,

even to the colouring of the beak, than U. acutica?tda. Has the

latter ever been crossed with the first steps in the production of

the Bengalee with a view to the origination of the paler coloured

varieties? If so, is the reproduction of yonng resembling U.

acuticauda due to the use of a buffish and white mother, inherit-

ing characteristics of the Sharp-tailed Finch. *


If, as Mr. Wiener says, the Japanese have kept and bred

birds for about three thousand years, there seems nothing at all

improbable in their having imported species from India, Ceylon

or Malaysia to experiment with : I see no more reason why they

should limit their studies to the birds of their own islands or of

the nearest mainland than why we should.


I do not believe the Bengalee has been reproduced in

Europe either from a wild stock or hy crossing two wild stocks;

but then it must be remembered that where a bird already exists,

there is not the inducement to reproduce it that there would be

if one were creating something new ; it would also probably

require the lives of several successive generations of breeders to

bring the form with its three varieties to perfection, and our

children rarely take an interest in the same pursuits as their

parents.


In breeding with a pair of the same variety of the Bengalee

I have found the young fairly true to colour ; the dark brown and

white (most like U. striata') varies much as regards the amount

of white in the plumage and the white variety sometimes throws

a spot or two of buffish, but I have never bred the dark brown

type from either of the others : I should not be surprised to find

white young in a nest of buff and white birds, especially if they

had been closely inbred.


It is doubtless because the Bengalee is quite unknown as a

wild bird, and is generally recognised as a domesticated or


* I know that t used such a bird, but whether Mr. Teschemaker did so or not, I

cannot tell. ~\



