Correspondence. 25 1


The Tinamous are grain and insect eaters, and my Tat an pas fed

chiefly on the smaller seeds such as canary, millet and hemp. Green-food

is most important, and the young are reared almost entirely upon insects

for the first ten days of their lives, after which they will eat soft food of

which yolk of egg forms a fair proportion ; finely chopped green-food,

such as chickweed, should be added to the soft-food. Small seeds are

eaten after the first week or ten days. I reared my young Tataupas chiefly

on small gentles which, when properly cleaned in sand, are extremly

good and wholseome food.


An article such as you ask for would be very valuable, but so little is

known of the habits of most of the Tinamous that I do not know who is to

write it. I hope we may someday have one from you describing the uest-

ing habits of Nothoprocta perdicaria ; meanwhile you might look up the

article I have mentioned and another note in the same volume (page 114)

on Calopezas elegans.


N. perdicaria inhabits North and Central Chili, so would probably

need artificial warmth during an English winter. D. SkTh-SmiTh.



"THE ORIGIN OF BENGALESE."


Sir, — I am glad to see that Dr. Butler and Captain Perreau have

reached a point of agreement as to the origin of Bengalese, for it is a

regrettable though acknowledged fact that aviculturists feel generally

compelled to come to opposite conclusions on the majority of debatable

questions.


I expect that most of us will be ready to accept their conclusion,

namely, that the Bengalee of commerce can and has been produced from

either the Sharp-tailed Finch or the Striated Finch, or from both of these

species.


Dr. Butler concludes by asking "If a cross between a Striated Finch

and Bengalee at the present time results in a Sharp-tailed Finch, how was

the dark-brown-and-white variety produced at all ? "


Perhaps it may be of interest to mention that two of my Bengalee-

Striateds, which have been referred to several times in this connection and

which Dr. Butler rightly describes as closely resembling adult Sharp-tailed

Finches, have this year paired and produced three young.


One of these exactly resembled the parents, but the other two were a

typical dark-brown-and-white and a typical fawn Bengalese.


I think, therefore, it would be safe to assume that, after a few more

generations of in-breeding, the Sharp-tailed Finch type would disappear.


I must not omit to mention that there were no Bengalese in this

aviary, and therefore there can be no possible question as to the parentage

of these young birds. W. E. Teschemakej^_



