J. E. Sweetnam—Notes from a Somerset Aviary 269


award of tlie Foreign Bird League breeder’s medal tbe question has

arisen whether these are Olive Finches (Phonipara lepida ) or Little

Finches ( P . pusilla), and I should be grateful for information on this

point from anyone who has had experience of both species and sub¬

species. Cuban Finches have also been very satisfactory.


Through a series of unfortunate accidents (two due to the inadvertent

use of sheeps’ wool as nesting material, as a result of which two sitting

hens had their legs dislocated) I have had no success this season with

either Hecks or ordinary Longtailed G-rassfinches, but I have a pair

of the now rare Parson Finches incubating steadily, and am hoping

to build up a stock of these interesting and beautiful little birds, the

importation of which seems, unaccountably, to have stopped. Last

season I reared fifty-one young from two pair of Zebra Finches but, this

year, the average from ten pair in an aviary to themselves has been much

lower. I attribute this partly to the upsetting effect of a number of

young birds on the breeding pairs, and partly to the fact that at least

half the total number were 1933 birds. In my experience these agile

and aggravating little finches need to be at least two years old before

they can be relied upon as steady breeders. I find that, when a

considerable number of pairs are housed in the same aviary, the young

are not hatched and reared consecutively but in batches. This is due

to the fact, already referred to, that a number of young birds in an

aviary bring all nesting operations to a standstill by their indiscriminate

use of nest-boxes as night nurseries, and this practical difficulty leads

me to believe that, though the species is most prolific when their

gregarious nature can be gratified, the best results will generally

be obtained when the numbers of breeding pairs in any one aviary

is kept within manageable dimensions, and the young from each nest

removed immediately they are independent, that is when they have

been ten or twelve days out of the nest.


Of my present collection of hardbills Bed-headed Parrot Finches

have been the most satisfactory, one pair having reared all the young

from five eggs and, immediately they were independent, started to

repeat the process in the same nest with three eggs. If only someone

could discover a reliable method of sexing them, these most active,

beautiful, prolific, and exceptionally hardy little birds would be ideal



