148 My Birds and their Doings, 
In aviary No. 7, three young Pelzeln's Saffron Finches 
have been out of the nest some weeks, and a second brood of 
four left the nest July 24th, these birds although of somewhat 
sombre appearance are beautiful little singers. 
The only other birds that have succeeded here are a pair 
of AURITA Doves, their first egg hatching on July 27th. 
Cinnamon Sparrows have gone as far as building, but 
no eggs have yet been laid. 
It is with a sad heart I have to record the death of my 
most robust hen Painted Finch ; she laid lier first egg on May 
i6th in a rush nest, and on the three succeeding days completed 
her clutch of four eggs, on which she took turns with the cock 
in incubating, but all to no purpose, as on inspection the eggs 
proved infertile, and so were removed. On the 29th of May the 
hen laid the first of four more eggs, but incubation again found 
the eggs clear, so I then removed the cock and replaced him 
with another that I was fortunate to procure through the kind- 
ness of one of our members. At first the hen rather resented 
the introduction of her new mate and took some little time to 
settle down, but by the 14th July she had apparently forgotten 
her lost love and was busily engaged with the cock constructing 
a nest. Their first attempt was rather a failure, it was only 
supported by a single twig and fortunateh^ collapsed before any 
eggs were laid ; the hen then resumed posse.ssion of her old 
nest in the basket and on the i8th laid lier first egg, to be 
again followed by three others. All seemed to go on well, and 
on the 24th they were sitting tight, but on the 25th not having 
seen either cock or hen I had a peep inside the basket only to 
find the little hen dead on her eggs and the cock close by on a 
branch bemoaning her loss. 
This is one of my bitterest disappointments as there is no 
bird I would sooner have bred than the little Painted Finch ; 
this last clutch of eggs proved fertile. 
Masked Grassfinches hatched out four young on the 
22nd of July, in a nest built at the root of a large thistle, these 
appear to be doing well in spite of the heavy rain which has 
predominated of late. In the same aviary one pair of Cordon 
Bleus have reared a brood and another pair are incubating; 
