On Nesting of Yellow-rumpcd and Chestnut-breasted Finches. 113


" Albert" or " Marie" biscuit, soaked in hot milk, and given not

too moist.


It is a curious fact that none of the authorities in Europe

seem to know from what part of South America the Lear's

Macaw is brought. It is probably somewhere in Brazil, for they

are brought from the ports of Bahia, Santos and Rio de Janeiro.


I have asked Herr Carl Hagenbeck, who wrote to me : —

" I made enquiries about the L,ear's Macaws, and I also cannot find

"the exact place from where the birds come. When we get these

" birds, they come from Bahia, Santos and Rio : to which places

" they are brought from the interior. This is all the information

"I can give about them."


So they probably inhabit some of the great forests in the

heart of Brazil, and a few young birds are reared from the nest,

and carried to the ports on the coast.


If there is a Macaw like this who can be possessed, and

yet whose habitat is unknown, how very possible that there may

be a Macaw who has never been possessed and whose habitat is

still more in the background ! Let us hope so.



THE NESTING OF THE YELLOW-RUMPED FINCH,


Munia flaviprymna,


AND THE CHESTNUT-BREASTED FINCH,


Munia casta7ieithorax.

By W. E. Teschemaker.

I propose to combine my notes on the breeding of these

two nearly allied species in the hope that they may thus prove

more interesting. There is another and equally good reason,

namely that recently the question has frequently been asked

whether these two species are really specifically distinct. When

I first saw a specimen of M. flaviprymna in the Zoological

Gardens in March, 1905, I was strongly inclined to regard it as

only a variant form of M. castaneithorax ; but, on making this

suggestion to a well known ornithological authority, I was^told.



