Correspondence


CORRESPONDENCE



145



Thi3 letter was sent to M. C. H. Hicks and was forwarded by him to the

Avicultural Magazine as being of general interest to aviculturists.— Ed.


RARE-FEATHERED GREENFINCHES


Sir,—I am sending you a Greenfinch, and shall be very much obliged

for a report on the cause of death.


I do not know if you saw a note a year or so ago in the Avicultural

Magazine by Dr. Hopkinson, in which he stated that he was very sceptical

as to Greenfinches having been bred in captivity beyond the first generation.

He said in his experience his birds hatched and reared successfully but that

the young ones all died either in the following winter or the succeeding spring.

He asked for some authentic information from fellow members on the subject.

I intended to write, but put it off, and did not do so. Moreover I expected

someone else with longer experience of Greenfinches would probably do so.

The matter is of great interest to me because I have been, as you know,

breeding Greenfinches in several new colours from sports. I find it is perfectly

true that they are difficult to deal with, though I have by dint of taking pains

achieved a good measure of success, and have not lost more than about

30 per cent of young ones through disease. To this has to be added the

inevitable losses by accident, especially through owls, hawks, and so forth,

which attack aviaries situated in the country.


I have been unlucky in losing most of the specimens showing the new

colours. Naturally I am very keen to eliminate losses through disease. With

my other British birds, Blackbirds, Thrushes, Sparrows, Chaffinches, Bullfinches

etc., my losses from disease are almost nil, as the birds are kept under natural

conditions in very large aviaries. The question of the Greenfinch is, however

a very important one to me. Mr. A. K. Gill, one of the Cage Birds experts,

thinks that Greenfinches are peculiarly liable to bacteriological infection,

but I do not think this explains the matter, as in some of my aviaries the

population is so low that any danger from this source is practically eliminated.

Death in most cases has supervened after gradual wasting. The Greenfinch

which I sent you a year or two ago was stated to be full of tubercle. I dare

say you will find the same applies to the bird I am sending you now, but if

the bird dies of tuberculosis it points to a deficiency in the diet, yet I supply

them with large quantities of natural food, such a's chickweed, flowering

grasses, sprouted seeds, besides bread and milk and so forth. I find most

British finches are fairly carnivorous and they do very well on being supplied

with mealworms, maggots, and so forth. Curiously enough one Bullfinch

hen brought up her young ones on earth worms, which seems very strange.

I am always pleased when I see my birds taking animal foods. My Green¬

finches, as far as I have been able to observe, are, however, strict vegetarians.

The Ministry of Agriculture has analysed the crop contents of a great many

birds to find whether they are useful or harmful, but their pamphlet on

Greenfinches does not throw much light on the subject. I wish I could find

out exactly what is the diet of the Greenfinch in its wild’state.


A. H. Scott.



