jf/ic Secret of Keeping '(Juuldian Finches. 
tlu! winter, l)ut \vii;i,t are left are as " hard as nails." \v/,. 
1mo1v»; youngsters and four pairs of old ones. 
Vou are hound to lose the imported ones after a time, 
l)ut the young ones seem to live well, which is very gratifying. 
Last winter they were all in an aviary 30 x 24 feet, 
with an unheated bird-i'oom 18 X S feet, which had a small 
tra2> door through Avhich tliej- had to come in to be fed (all 
food being kept under cover); they mostly roosted outside, 
though some earner inside when it was really cold. 
lacing so kept they are quite hardy, since all the 
soft o;ie.s get weeded out. One pair is already breeding, 
another building, whereas, if kept in a heated bird-room and 
put out in say, May, they would not have settled down till 
July or August. They prefer Hartz-tra veiling -cages for nest- 
boxes, but also use other converted travelling-cages. 
1 have now got a hardy llock of twenty birds, and 
all rcost outside under rhododendron heaves in a place where 
they get the early morning sun. 
I must not forget to mention thai archangel mats were 
put three-quarter way along the east side of the aviary, to 
stop the cuttmg east winds, which Gouldiaus do not like, and 
also that the aviaries face due south. 
The Goulds now get: Canary seed, millet sprays, and 
water, which is always boiled— this, I consider, is an, if not 
the most, important part hi connection with feeding Cioulds 
and other birds, and I know that there are others that will, 
and do, agree with me. 
Personally, 1 attribute my success with these Fmches 
almost entirely to boiled water, and I do hope that keepers 
of Gouldians will always give it to their birds also, as the 
little extra trouble is amply repaid. 
♦ 
The Secret of Keeping Gouldian Finches. 
What is it? 
By Dr. L. Lovell-Kbays. 
Our Editor has written and asked me how we are 
getting on in the matter of letters and so -forth. So far I have 
had several very interesting and helpful letters, where<is, all 
admit the necessity for detejmmiiig the reason for our losses, 
yet up to the time of going to pressi nobody tias satisfac-i 
