288



Correspondence



A BLUE MASKED LOVEBIBD IN CALIFORNIA


We Lave Lad tLe good luck of raising a Blue-masked Lovebird

from a pair of our Masks. TLe bird is now about four months old, and

identical in colour with the picture of your original Blue-mask, pubhshed

in the Avicultural Magazine, 1928. TLe bird is being shown for the

first time to-day at the meeting of the Avicultural Society of America

in San Diego, at Mr. I. D. Putnam’s Lome. I Lave not determined sex

of the bird, but believe it to be a male. I understand you Lave been

successful in breeding and raising a few Blues from your original

bird. Would like to know what method of mating you used with your

bird. Any information will be greatly appreciated.


L. H. Cross.


1865 El Molino Avenue,


San Marino, Calif., U.S.A.


[TLe Blue bird referred to above should be given a normally coloured

mate. TLe young produced will all be of normal appearance, but these,

when mated inter se, will produce approximately one Blue in every

four. TLe remainder will be normally coloured, but some (50 per cent

of the whole) will be heterozygotes (Blue-bred like their parents),

and the remaining 25 per cent of the whole will be Lomozygotes, or

pure normal.— Ed.]



SUCCESSFUL BREEDING OF THE CRIMSON FINCH


Mr. Andrew R. Hynd, who owns a small but very choice collection of

foreign birds at Broughty Ferry, Angus, has this year successfully

reared a brood of five Crimson Finches (.Neochmia phcetori). He writes :

“ I have been informed that the young cock birds can be distinguished

by having a few red features on the breast. None of mine have such

and, with the exception of one or two being highly coloured on tail and

wings, they are all exactly alike. Am I to take it that all are hens ?

Or is it not impossible to say until they moult ? ” Mr. Hynd need not

feel anxious as the young of the Crimson Finch are all coloured like

the adult female until the first moult.



