Godfrey Davis—Breeding the Striated Finch or White-hacked Munia 45


in the oblong wire cage did, in fact, build a nest and the hen laid eggs

but the birds did not seem to have the feeling of confidence and security

that the “ breeding pen ” seemed to give. I ascribe the increasing

confidence and tameness of the Munias in the “ breeding pen ” to its

size and to the gabled roof which, with the cross-pieces, seemed to

give the birds confidence and a feeling of security. The cock and the

hen in the smaller oblong cage both rushed into the nest when any¬

one passed the cage or stopped to look at them and the young, though

hatched, survived only a few days. The Green Avadavats merely played

about with grass, the cock birds fixing it at the entrance of the nesting-

box so that it always fell down. Contrary to my previous experience

the Green Avadavats did not appear to want to build in the box, but

outside it. I planted seed of Indian millet to get half-ripe growing seed

heads for the parent birds to rear their young on, but unfortunately

excessive rains and grasshoppers destroyed the crop and I had to rely

largely on soaked seeds. It is to this that I attribute, perhaps wrongly,

the fact that I only reared one out of the three young Munias. About

the end of August the pair of White-backed Munias in the breeding pen

got really busy. The cock bird took the seeding grass I gave it and

carried it into the nesting-box ; the hen sat contentedly inside but the

cock kept reaching to his full height, pushing the grass up and then

drawing it over to form the domed roof and covered entrance to the

nest. I think I must have put too much dried grass in the nesting-

boxes to form the foundation and side supports of the nest because

Munias build large nests and even in the case of the Bengalese, which

I was keeping for foster-parents, one of the four young which left the

nest seemed cramped : at least he had practically no tail. In future

I should put only a thin lining of dried grass into the nesting-box. About

12th September I took the Munias nesting-box out to see if there were

eggs, as on the 9th the Bengalese had four eggs. There were four eggs.

The Munias seemed to have become even tamer than the Bengalese,

though wild-caught only early the same year, and the cock always care¬

fully pulled back any grass in the front of the nest which I had dis¬

arranged. I did not take the nesting-box out again until all the four

Bengalese eggs were hatched and then I found one little Munia and

three eggs. But the next morning the young Munia was dead in the



