Correspondence



89



young are the same as those complained about. It is noticeable that

this aviary is not so well covered with grass, nor do the birds take the

interest one would expect in seeding grasses thrown in to them. I

suggest that the perfectly feathered birds in one nest are caused by the

large quantities of grass consumed by the parent birds.


Shortly I hope to have an opportunity of proving this theory by

shifting those pairs which usually have imperfectly feathered young

to another well-grassed aviary.


The Avicultural Society of New Zealand.


G. Rowland Hutchinson,


Hon. Secretary.



A CURIOUS HYBRID


In reply to the query by Sir David Ezra, in the November number

(p. 322), as to whether the cross between the Java Sparrow and

Bengalese has been produced in England, the answer, as far as my

Records go, is in the negative, though since these were published

(1926), I have been able to add a record from Japan given in Hachisuka’s

Variations Among Birds (Tokyo, November, 1928) of this cross

having been recently bred in the Marquess Yamashima’s aviary in

Tokyo.


I should be interested to learn if Sir David Ezra knows where the

birds represented were bred, for it seems quite likely that they were a

later brood from the same collection.


Among other hybrid records among similar birds new to me given

by Hachisuka from these aviaries are :—


Indian Silverbill X Cherry Finch


Bengalese X Maja Finch


Long-tailed Grass Finch X Bengalese


Crimson-rumped Waxbill X Orange-cheeked Waxbill


Crimson-rumped Waxbill X Grey Waxbill


Cherry Finch x Zebra Finch.


Of the last two, however, there were records of the crosses the

other way, in Italy and France respectively.



E. Hopkinson.



