THE



Avicultural Magazine


THE JOURNAL OF THE

AVICULTURAL SOCIETY



Fourth Series. —-Vol. X.—No, 1. —All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1932.



THE CRIMSON FINCH (NEOCHMIA PHAETON)


This lovely little bird, which, in its wild state, has a wide range

throughout Northern Australia, has always been a great favourite

of mine, for when once acclimatized it is a good liver and its beauty is

equalled by few. When first imported it certainly needs considerable

care as do all the Ornamental Finches of Australia and elsewhere. It is

not often imported, and I imagine that although so widely distributed,

it is nowhere found in nearly such abundance as, for instance, the

Gouldian Finch, and apparently when first captured it is a more

difficult bird to acclimatize than some of the others. There is no doubt

that it is to a large extent insectivorous and probably suffers if fed on

nothing but dry seed when first caught. At times it is apt to be

decidedly quarrelsome. Many years ago I possessed a pair of these

birds, which gave no trouble, but immense pleasure. They were kept in

a large aviary, the outer part of which was planted with shrubs and grass

and the inner part warmed during winter. Their companions were

many and varied, but although they would occasionally appear

somewhat aggressive, they never actually did any harm that I could

detect. They made several nests, generally in round basket receptacles,

and actually hatched their eggs on one or two occasions but did not

succeed in rearing their young. Later, at the Zoological Gardens, we

were more successful and a pair actually reared a brood of three in 1912.

But this pair proved rather more quarrelsome than my original pair,

and rendered the lives of a pair of Peale’s Parrot Finches unbearable,

so we had to move them to a compartment containing larger birds.



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