82 
A Retrospect. 
Finches, give them a nesting place and nesting material, and 
count the young ones, but some jiairs rear very few ; of course 
pairs differ in this respect, as in others. 
I'^or one thing, they do not want insect food, mealworms, 
spiders, or anything difficult to procure. 
One thing must always be remembered, and that is that 
two pairs won't live in the same aviary, and the young must be 
removed; for a more quarrelsome bird with its own kind 1 have 
never met. 1 once carried a cage containing a pair into the 
aviary where there already vas a pair, and they fought 
through the bars despite my presence. With other birds 
they are generally harmless, although 1 once discovered a male 
bird sitting on top of a cock Golden-breasted VVaxbill and 
pecking it to death; this became a habit of his, and 1 had to 
remove them; they were then placed in another aviary with 
exactly the same kind of birds, and, strange to say, from that 
time onwards were always peaceful, law-abiding citizens. 
Red. HEADED Finches (Amadina crythroccphala) are 
perhaps the most prolific species I ever kept. I started with 
one pair. They at once chose a coco-nut husk, and laid, and 
then laid again before the young left the nest. I noticed that 
the parents were about in the aviary a great deal, so fearing for 
the youngsters I looked into the husk, and found them strong 
and well and sitting on a new clutch of eggs, thereby relieving 
the mother of this job, with which she carried on when they left 
the nest. This was repeated, either once or twice more — I 
forget which — and by the time the last lot were fledged the first 
lot were sitting on eggs of their own. 
Finally, they became too numerous and out they all had 
to go. Again, some pairs are very prolific, whilst others do 
little. My advice is, try a pan-, and if they do not nest, get 
another; when once they start you need not worry, you will 
soon have enough and to spare. 
To be continued. 
