on Nesting of Yellow-rumped and Chestnut- breasted Finches, nj


he has ten individuals, none of which have changed colour.

I have had seven. One of my birds has been in my

possession for eighteen months, during which time it has

undergone three moults but has not changed. Mr. Payne

refers to a pair which have been two years in captivity in

their own country, but " are still Yellow-rumps."


(v). As I shall subsequently show, a young Chestnut-

breasted Finch, bred in my aviary this summer, was, at six

weeks old, absolutely distinct from young Yellow-rumps

of the same age, showing already the chestnut breast.


I expect that we can now most of us make a shrewd guess

as to the solution of this little problem. I think we shall not be

far from the truth if we assume that these are distinct species,

compelled to associate by a chance circumstance ; and that the

dark-throated birds are wild hybrids, showing their mixed

parentage after the first moult.


Of course the keystone of this argument is missing, viz., a

hybrid bred in captivity. Surely some of our 428 members will

supply this desideratum next season.


I will now give some notes on the nesting of M. flavi-

prymna with me this summer. I unfortunately lost the hen that

so nearly succeeded in winning a medal in 1905, so I started this

season with the same male bird and the old hen which last year

built but did not lay, I also obtained two pairs imported by one

of our members early this year. The latter were turned out in

the larger aviary, the former in the small " Waxbills' aviary."


This season has been quite an " Australian year" with me.

One can well understand that the long sunny days of this

wonderful Halcyon summer have suited the Australian species

well but what there can have been attractive to them in the

unusually cold inclement spring I cannot understand. Never-

theless I had young Ruficaudas, Grassfinches, Diamond Doves,

and one young Yellow-rump flying by the middle of May and

all bred in the open.


The Yellow-rumps (one of the newly-imported pairs) sat

in a small nest box hanging on the wire netting, from which, on

May 14th, two young flew. The first sight of a young Flavi-

pryimia is calculated to make one rub one's eyes and wonder if-ene-"



