244 
Bringing Home Foreign Birds. 
by arriving one day late, and was in consequence out of temper for 
the rest of the day . 
At Adelaide I received a promise thai 100 White-eyes should 
be waiting for me on my return, also pairs of Robins and Blue Wrens, 
yf:s, sir, nif^ely meated off ; I got none ! 
Ai Alelhournn I was promised 9.00 at least of the rarer soft- 
bills, and some of them were actually new to English aviculture : the 
rains camr and none could be caught, and at Sydnej' I could buy none ; 
what a fearful blow to all my fine hopes 1 
As a result of this I had to be content with a few soft -bills 
that I caught myself. Striated Tit-Wavblers, Yellow Robins, Red 
Robins and one or two Honey-eaters and one White-shafted Fantuil 
(Elnpiduru albiseapa). but just as I got them nicely meated off, as I 
thought, something went wrong and I lost the lot. The Tit-Warblers 
were delightful little birds, but one night they all bathed in bread and 
milk, caught cold and died ! 
I left Australia with 1 pair Red-capped Robins, 1 Spine-bill 
Hone3--eater, 1 pair New Holland White-plumed Honey-eaters, 1 pair 
White-cheeked Hone3'-eaters, 1 pair Fuscous Honey -eaters, several Inin- 
ulated Honey -eaters, and several White-eyes, mostly bought from aviaries. 
Of these- only pairs of White-cheeked. White-plumed, and three Tjunulated 
Honey-eaters, and five White-cycs have survived. Three Robins died 
when I found my renewal supplies of insects at the Cape dead and 
putrid ; such is luck ! 
I had 13 pairs of Fire-tails, such beauties they were too, but 
a week saw the end of them all, the oni' spcies of Seed-eaters I, really 
wanted most, and the majority onlj' cost 2s. a pair, being freshly caught. 
Bicheno's and Sydney Waxbills ; 1 pair each of Parrot and 
Cherrv Finches ; Diamond Sparrons galore ; 4 Parson Finches, 1 ^Masked 
Grassfinch. S Gouldians, 2 o" Diamond Doves, 2 pairs Blue-winged 
Parrakeets (Ncophcma venusta\ 1 pair Hooded Parrakcts, 6 pairs Pen- 
nant's Parrakeets ; 1 Bare-eyed Cockatoo, 1 pair Leadbeater's Cockatoos, 
and" a Wallaby left Australia with me. 
The moral is plain to me, and that is, if you must bring Finches 
home stick to those which have been in captivity some time, and not 
those which have just been caught ; the latter die if you look at thr>m, 
the former do not . 
Twcnt_y-four cages to clean and feed every morning, when you 
start at 7-30 and finish about 11 a.m. is too much, at least I found 
it so, especially if the weather is rough, for if your birds are under 
the forecastle head, as mine were, you realise what the motion of the boat 
is like and hate it every second, still it has to be done, although if one 
must admit the truth, the cleaning gets sadly neglected on rough days. 
In Africa I managed to purchase some Alalachite and Ticsser 
Double -collared Sunbirds, which had been in captivity for seven months, 
these were no trouble at all, all with the exception of one cock L,esser 
Double-collared are still fit and well, which only emphasises what I have 
already slated, pay more ami start with acclimatised birds. 
