176 
Breeding of the Orchnrd Finch. 
At first I was not quite happy about the youngsters 
as they did not seem to care much for hard seed, but I soon 
discovered that they consumed large quantities of green -food, 
soft-food, cake crumbs, and such like. 
On June loth the first sexual distinctions were visible 
in the young — the male bird showing a little of the black 
forehead and breast, and the white raouslachial streak was a 
trille more marked than in the female; moreover ut or about 
this time he began to imitate the song of his father who was 
within earshot. 
On .June 2Gth the young female who had been ill for 
some days died of pneumonia — how or why she contracted the 
disease I cannot guess! Her earlier days had been spent 
out of doors in an aviary without shelter — then on being put 
in a cage, which stood in the sun all day and was brought in 
at night, contracts a disease which is usually put down to 
cold, wet or draughts — such is often one's fate in aviculture. 
In conclusion I should like to recommend this species 
to anyone who does not insist that a biixl cannot be beautiful 
unless coloured like a Gouldian Finch or Sunbird. 
The adult male takes at least two seasons to attain 
the full blacks in his plumage and is then an extremely hand- 
some bird, even though somewhat suggestive of a very large 
cock Sparrow. The hen on the other hand is a very pretty 
study in soft brown and chestnut, and after last autumn's 
moult I considered her one of the most attractive looking 
birds in my aviaries 
They are hardy, easy to breed, and were it not for 
their scarcity on the market would have been reared in cap- 
tivity long ago. 
Since writing the above notes I have replaced the old 
birds in their original aviary and they are again nesting. 
♦ 
Nesting Results for 1914 at Park Lodge Aviaries 
By De. L. Lovell-Keays, F.Z.S. 
{Continued jroTii page 150)'. 
I propose to commence this instalment with, what I 
consider to be perhaps, one of the most charming of all Wax- 
