H. Yealland — Hand-rearing of the White-capped Parrot 11


inner primary coverts, forming a wing bar ; tail, black ; iris, dark 5

bill and feet, black.


Juvenile Male. —I can find no description.


Female. —Above, light brown, tinged with grey on the top of head

and upper back ; lores, rust-coloured ; eyelid, buffy white ; ear coverts,

cheeks, and under surface of body, light, fulvous brown, whiter along

the centre of the breast and abdomen ; sides of body, the flanks,

thighs, and under-tail coverts, pale brown ; lesser wing coverts, like

the upper surface ; others, blackish, edged with light brown and tinged

with fulvous ; tail, pale brown.


Habitat. —Ecuador.


References. —Euss, p. 570. Neunzig, p. 236. Butler, p. 146. A vie.

Mag., vol. ii, p. 57. Bird Notes, vol. vi, p. 186.


The Spectacled Finch is extremely rare in captivity. A few were

imported in 1912, and it has a place in the Zoo list, where it is included

as a sub-species of Sporophila aurita.


(To be continued.)



THE HAND-REARING OF THE WHITE-

CAPPED PARROT


(.Pionus senilis )


By H. Yealland


The disappointment of the failure of Lord Tavistock’s pair of

White-capped Parrots to rear their young successfully last summer

was, at the time, mitigated by the hope that a second nest might

be forthcoming, and it was with this expectation that we substituted

two tall logs for the tall box in which the previous brood of two

young ones had come to grief.


All hope of breeding this charming species in 1934 had, how¬

ever, gone by the time I went for my holiday in early August, for,

a few days before I left, I noticed that the cock had commenced to

moult and had actually dropped a secondary. It was, therefore,

with surprise that I learnt on my return of a new effort on the



