CANARIES AND OTHER CAGE-BIRD FRIENDS 



Photograph b\ L ^t [h n\ ^tr\ art 

 "take home a canary to carol on CHRISTMAS AND SING IN THE NEW YEAR ' 



At a limited-price variety store in Wasiiington, D. C, imported roller and other canaries are 

 offered for sale — as well as all the "fixin's," such as bird seed, bird medicines, perches, cage covers, 

 and cages. In the last year this store alone sold 3,300 canaries. 



in body than the zebra finch and is even more 

 strikingly marked (Color Plate VI). It is 

 native in eastern Australia. 



In the bush, diamond finches make long 

 bottle-shaped nests of grass in which to place 

 their four to seven white eggs. Often from 

 three to a dozen of their homes may be placed 

 beneath the great stick nest of a brown hawk 

 or a whistling eagle, these large neighbors 

 seeming entirely indifferent to the little birds 

 living beneath them. 



Gouldian Finch 



Of all the Australian weavers the most at- 

 tractive are the Gouldian finches (Poephila 

 gouldiae), named by the English naturalist 

 John Gould for his wife, in recognition of her 

 long assistance to him in illustrating his books 

 on birds. 



Viewed in the abstract, a combination color 

 pattern composed of brilliant yellow, purple, 

 black, red, and green can only impress the 

 color-conscious person as gaudy. That this 



may not necessarily be true is shown by the 

 trim form of the Gouldian finch, which, dressed 

 in these identical colors, is beautiful and pleas- 

 ing (Color Plate VI). 



These small birds, an attraction in any 

 aviary, are natives of northern Australia. 

 Their nests are the usual globular structures 

 of grass, suspended in trees or bushes except 

 when the birds elect to nest in holes of trees. 

 The eggs are white. 



Gouldian finches breed readily in captivity, 

 and many are reared for sale. For years it 

 was supposed that the birds with black faces 

 and those with red were distinct, while a third 

 kind with orange head was also recognized. 

 Breeders find, however, that the three are 

 merely color variations, and that all belong 

 to the same species. Even the sexes cannot 

 always be distinguished with certainty, as the 

 breasts are lighter in young males, and some 

 females are as bright as the briUiant males. 



The young, when in the nest, have curious 

 mouth tubercles, light in color, the reason for 



