252 
Bill] Life Through fJir Camera. 
diOicult to breed in close quarters as they are vtery wild arid 
require plenty of cover. 
This completed their nesting operations for 1909. This 
season they made use of their old nest and three pairs of 
young- have been fully reared, and tliey are again inculcating 
another efutch of eggs. 
\A'h('n disturbed or scared the sitting l)ird Hies oiV the 
nest and I'uns along the ground with wings outspread, as if 
resenting the intrusion on their home life. 
Painted Finches ( Einhlema picta). The lireeding of 
Painted Finches, whit-li like the Passerines T l)elieve 
is the lirst time for Great Britain, marks a red-letter day in 
the annals of my bird keaping, and serves as some little com- 
pensation for the many disapi)ointraents I have had with this 
l)arli(;-ular species. 
From Wallace's importation of this year, live pairs found 
tlieii- Avay into my aviaries, Avhicli together with the pair I 
already possessed made six in all, and fortunately ,ill twelve 
birds survived the six or eight Aveeks of cage life, to be 
eventually turned out of doors, each pair in a sei)arate aviary, 
but witli other birds. 
The first pair laid and hatched but the two young were 
thrown out of the nest, p'robably by other inmates of the 
aviary . 
This nest was built in a rush basket and the only 
materials used were a few roots and bits of earth, mostly 
carried by the cock. 
The second time this pair nested was in a shrub, out 
in the open, when a very uuiky nest was built of hay and 
small bits of earth, covered again with hay, no doubt with a 
view to making it more secure. 
Here again failui'C dogged their footsteps, the eggs be- 
ing eaten. 
The second pair to go to nest were in a larger aviary 
with pairs of Rufous-throated Tanagers and Cuba Finchtv; 
they chose a coco-nut husk in which four eggs were laid, 
the only liniHg to the nest being a few feathers. T!ie exact 
date the eggs were laid is not known, as when discovered 
the eggs had beeii incubated, and two were hatched out six; 
days later, on May 2Gth, the other two e^g-s were infertile. 
