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FOREIGN FINCHES IN CONFINEMENT, 



WITH HINTS AS TO THE DIFFICULTIES ARISING FROM THE 

 ASSOCIATION OF VARIOUS SPECIES IN THE SAME AVIARY. 



By Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



For many years before I ventured to arrange for the publi- 

 cation of my ' Foreign Finches in Captivity,' I had kept and 

 studied a considerable number of species of both the Fringillidce 

 and Ploceidce ; but thoroughly to comprehend the peculiar dis- 

 positions of these birds is the work of a lifetime, perhaps of 

 several generations of lifetimes. 



The first aim of the aviculturist is so to group the species 

 that they may dwell harmoniously together, but with certain birds 

 this is practically impossible, as I shall now proceed to explain. 



The genus Spermophila was considered by my friend Herr 

 August Wiener to consist of uninteresting but perfectly harmless 

 birds which were content to pass an uneventful existence in 

 munching millet-seed. I find the species of this genus very 

 interesting, the whole of them fair, and some excellent, songsters. 

 Most of them are innocent enough, but one — the White-throated 

 Finch, Spermophila albigularis—is a perfect little demon. I have 

 kept the White-throated Finch for nine or ten years. For the 

 first year, in a large aviary, he is on his good behaviour, and 

 sings his pretty see-saw song almost incessantly ; the aviculturist 

 is charmed, and buys two or three more males, and perhaps a 

 female or two. From that day there is incessant war in the 

 aviary ; the males fight from dawn to twilight. If only two 

 equally powerful males are together the fighting does little harm, 

 but when there are three the weakest goes to the wall, is literally 

 scalped, and unless promptly removed is certain to be torn to 

 shreds. 



When I had got as far as this in my study of S. albigalaris, I 

 thought I had plumbed the depth of its iniquity ; so, never 

 having seen it attack anything but a Spermophila, I purchased a 



