Parrot Finches. 
389 
me spent the whole period out of door.s, never looking in 
any hut ' spick and sjjan " condition, and was so when picked 
up one suinmer-day dead. However, I have never seriously 
attempted to acclimatise the species, and therefore shall not 
attempt to dogmatise. I may have formed conclusions from 
other,< failures and successes, but this is not the time to ex- 
press them, as I want our members who have kept this 
specie- to describe fully their methods, success, or failure 
or both. I am pleased that Mr. Bainbridge has kindly 
written a rather encouraging paper of his attempts with the 
species, Dr. Amsler has already done so, and as both he and 
Mr. Temple have all but succeeded in breeding the species, 
we may reasonably hope that, in the not distant future the 
mystery, re the well-being of this species in captivity may- 
be cleared up. 
liaving a wide range, there is more than the usual 
colour variation with this species, and there are two types, 
of male, the one which we will call the normal, so well known 
to all, and the othei' with the rump and abdominal patch 
golden -ochre, less blue on the forehead, breast washed with 
smoky-grey, the lower hah of tail l)Iackisli and tiie green of 
the ui)per surface much dai'ker than that of the normal type; 
there are also intej'mediate phases between these two. 
I' here are also several colour forms of the female, 
which point to the fact that there are similar divergencies, 
with possibly two distinct types, in both sexes of the Pin- 
tailed Parrot -Finch. 
PIN-TAILED PARROT-FINCH. 
By \V. a. Bainbkidgb. 
The lin-tail (Nonpareil) Parrot-Finch according to 
the experience of most aviculturists is one, if not, the most 
difficult of seed-eaters to acjLmaiise; it arrives at the dealers to 
all outward appearances in the most perfect health and con- 
dition, and yet in a few days' time it is dead. 
Two years ago I purchased two pairs as far as I 
could see they were perfect; next day a hen died. I pur- 
chased another, then a cock died, agam I made up my two 
pairs, and then iliey began to die ia earnest and 1 refrained 
