The Secret of Keeping (louhJioii Fbiches. ]17 
The Secret of Keeping Gouldian Finches, 
What is it ? 
By Dr. L. Lovell-Keaye) . 
The question is indeed easy to ask and oddly enough 
easy to answer. Shortly: all you need is healtliy birds, good 
food of a suitable kind, and plenty of space. "Climate"? you 
ask — " It doesn't matter," you reply, and yet the lie sticks 
in your throat, at its very birth. Why, oh, why is it we 
can keep Lony-tailed Grassfinches, Hiificauda^. Diamond 
Finches and Masked Grassfinches, to name a few of the 
commoner Grassfinches, and even the evasive Pintail Parrot Finch 
has no terrors for us (to say nothing of Firetinches and Lav- 
ender Finches) but Gouldians seem to be heartbreaking, there 
is something uncanny about them. I have kept Gouldians 
and still have some, but I cannot claim to have succeeded with 
them. My friend. Mi". Sich, whose aviaries adjoin mine, has 
tried for a number of years and apparently his successes 
have been sadly tinged with failure. In him and myself 
you have the exactly opposite type of avicnlhirist. I am 
rather of the happy-go-lucky-find-out-for-yourself type, and 
he is the careful rule-of -thumb type. But wlien it comes to 
Gouldians, our results are much the same witli this one great 
difference, and that is, he has bred them and T have only 
nearly done so. It was on talking over the subject with that 
most interesting and versatile of all avicmllurists (I mean our 
genial Editor), that he asked me to give my own experi- 
ences and to formulate a plan to investigate the cause of 
our losses. Personally I don't mind admitting non-success 
a little bit. If by admitting and publishing it, T can learn 
how to avoid failure in future, I am far better off than he 
who won't admit it and so cannot learn better. I will then 
describe my experiences and endeavour to sliow my faults 
as well as my virtues. I started with Gouldians in May, 
1913 The weather was warm and fme. My aviary faced 
south; there was a very excellent and lofty inner house, abso- 
lutely free from draught. In it was a tub containing a li'ving 
fir tree. On this the Gouldians would sometimes roost. The 
light too, was excellent. My outer flight was then only 20 
feet long by 10 feet broad, and 8 feet high. It was hoarded 
