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A. J. Patterson—Breeding the Painted Finch



put this down to the fact that my ground was getting stale. The state

of the soil certainly has a marked influence on the fertility of birds,

and even on their willingness to go to nest at all ; and I do not believe

that any soil treatment short of sterilization, which is impossible, is

of much avail. Certainly the addition of lime and rock salts can have

little effect beyond killing worms, slugs, and possibly fungi and protozoa

—as bactericides they are much too weak.


Possibly these Starlings condescended to breed because they are

entirely arboreal and show the greatest reluctance to alighting on the

ground even to pick up a mealworm, but against this I have always

had luck, even up to this year, breeding the Orange-headed Ground

Thrush which spends much more of its time on the ground than on

the perches.


It is more than possible that the proverbial “ beginners luck ” in

aviculture is due to the fact that the birds are housed in new aviaries

which naturally are erected on fresh ground.



BREEDING THE PAINTED FINCH


(Embla fid a)


By A. J. Patterson


Apart from the breeding of a few Bourkes, Cockatiels, and Redrumps,

season 1935 has been bad, probably due to mice and egg binding during

the spring. A young pair of Peplars, bred here in 1933, laid four eggs,

hatched three, and then failed to feed after two weeks.


I claim one success, however, in the breeding and rearing of the

rare Painted Finch. I imported three pairs of these rare Finches last

autumn at a very rare price. They arrived in splendid condition and

without loss. One pair I passed on to another keen aviculturist, one

pair I placed in the aviary, and the other pair I kept indoors in a box

cage 6 feet long. I lost the hen in the aviary through egg binding. The

hen from the pair indoors laid eggs from the perch and then in the

seed pot. Finally, however, she took to the nest-box and laid four

small white eggs which hatched on 6th August, after about seventeen



