io 
Pintail Nonpareil. 
July I2th, 1909 . IJe a])i)ears anxious to '^o to nest. 1 
saw him carrying material about to-day and singing. 
Sei)tember 6tli, 1909. The Pintail is in full moult; he 
is quite healthy and 1 think he will come through the ordeal 
safely. 
September 30tli. The Pintail has completed his moult 
beautifully. 
October 4th, 1909. ^'esterday and the day before the 
Pintail looked very ill — simply a ball of feathers. I expected 
to find him dead this morning, but to my surprise he was quite 
smart and lively and looked his old self again. 
December 13th, 1909. The Pintail is still out of doors, 
and we have had some very hard frosts and bad weather. He is 
quite smart and lively, and I think that when once thoroughly 
acclimatised these birds are as hardy as most foreign finches. 
January 21st, 1910. Found the Pintail dead this morn- 
ing. Me was in the best of health yesterday. Fie has been 
in our possession 21 months — a record for this species with us. 
The foregoing is a verbatim extract from my note book 
Impressions faithfully made are of great assistance at other 
times, although some may be erroneous. 
The last-mentioned bird moulted in mid-June, and again 
in September; probably the first moult was incomplete. At 
what period do they usually change their feathers? 
I have noticed quite a number of young ones in a con- 
signment in London with malformations of the beak. What 
is the cause ? 
Many of our members have kept these birds. It is often 
the case that failures are of more assistance to us than our 
successes, and I hope some of our members will give us their 
views on this and other birds. We have a lot to learn, and I 
appeal to fellow members not to wait until they have some 
brilliant success to chronicle before giving us their experiences. 
Our Editor asks us to use the Correspondence Columns. 
Why not do so ? 
[Our member, Mr. Grossmith, lias kept thi.s species very successfully 
on bi-jaked paddy rice — they had access to other seeds, of which they partook 
to some extent.' — Ed.] 
