Godfrey Davis—Breeding the Striated Finch or White-hacked Munia 43


of fact these two doors were the only weak spots in my model cage

because they will not bend backwards, and unless a cage is made to

fit in exactly in the space left when they are opened, there is trouble.

I should get over this difficulty in a future model by having hinges

which would allow the doors to be lifted off ; there will then be no

opening outward doors to prevent another cage from being brought

close alongside. All the doors were fastened by small wooden buttons.

The frame of the cage and of the doors were covered with | in. wire

netting. In fact I have found this not so satisfactory as \ in. mesh

which I had fixed on a second of the cages I had made. The f in. mesh

wire netting is heavy and the very small mesh rather obscures the view.

The bottom of the cage also was covered with wire netting, and a tray

of thin galvanized sheet iron nailed on to a wooden frame slid in and

out over the wire netting ; the tray actually slid upon a thin guiding

rail of wood let into the centre of the bottom framework, lengthwise

from beneath, thus guiding and supporting the tray ; a wood flap

hinged by wire on to the first bottom cross-bar lifted up so as to allow

the tray to be put in and taken out. The tray pulled out beneath the

doors from the end farthest from the nesting-box and so caused as

little disturbance as possible. The cage stood on the floor of the

verandah, end-on against the wall, so that the doors at the end could

be lifted without undue disturbance or movement when food or water

was to be supplied. The verandah measured 10 by 22 ft. and opened

into the garden. In fact the birds became so tame that food could

be put in at any of the doors and the little hen seemed to wait till you

were looking to go in and feed the young. The nesting-box was made

of thin white wood ; it was 6 in. square on three sides with a piece of

stout wire passed through two holes in the back and twisted into

a hook to hang on to the wire netting ; the front of the nesting-box

was half-open, the lower half being closed with a 3 in. strip of wood.

As a matter of fact in the cage in which the Munias nested I had two

nesting-boxes, and it turned out this was an advantage, because after

the young left the nest it would seek shelter from the sun in the empty

nesting-box, and both the cock and the hen would go inside the box to

feed it, but it returned to the box in which was the nest at night and

at midday when the cage was brought in from the garden. I am afraid



