Dr. E. Hopkinson—More Additions to Breeding Becords 223


MORE ADDITIONS TO BREEDING RECORDS


By Dr. E. Hopkinson, C.M.G., D.S.O.


(Continued from page 152.)


p. 41. 178. Gouldian Finch. For the record as it stands, read :


The three forms, red, black, and the very occasional

yellow-headed, all interbreed, but no intermediate phases

ever appear. According to Neunzig (p. 371) all the forms

were once obtained in Australia from a pair of Black-heads.

De Brisay (Insectivores . . . Appendix, p. 266) says that

Gouldians, both red and black-headed, were first imported

to London in 1855 and bred in France for the first time by

Comely in the following year ; very soon Delaurier, Ollivray,

and many others followed with successes. In the United

Kingdom the first breeder of the red-headed form was

Phillips, says Fillmer in his Waxbills, Mannikins, etc., but

I have no first record for the Black-heads, nor know whether

this preceded Phillips’s or not. Many (or rather most)

Gouldians never show any sign of wishing to breed, but when

they do start they are often prolific. Among the many

records of success may be mentioned A.M., Vol. I, 1 ;

Minutes of the Cage-bird Club, 19th August, 1893 ; B.N.,

vi, 343 (Perreau in India ; twenty-two young reared by

two pairs, 1905-06) ; B.N., 1910, 70 (Edmunds ; one chick

reared by Java Sparrows) ; B.N., 1914, 374 (Suggitt,


“ freely ”) ; B.N., 1915 (Thomasset; seventeen reared in

1915, and one hen brought up thirteen in the previous

years) ; A.M., 1922, 38 (“ freely ”). More recently Whitley

has been breeding them easily at Paignton ; see also Teague’s

full account of his successes and methods in A.M., 1932, 90.

Delacour in an article on Japanese Aviculture in A.M.,

1926, 217 says that Gouldians, Long-tailed Grass Finches,

Masked, Parson, Bicheno, and Cherry Finches were then

being bred in Japan in thousands with the help of Bengalese

as fosters and a special fish meal as food. The results have

hardly made themselves manifest yet, at any rate as far

as reaching Europe. I have seen Japanese-bred birds in



