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E. M. Lujpton—Crimson Finches



fruit, such as pears, oranges, grapes, and apples, all ripe, also walnuts,

as they are especially fond of these.


The young bird is exactly like the male in plumage (a Black-headed

Caique), except that his thighs are green like the female, and he has

more, of her salmon colour at the back of his neck. At a distance,

it is difficult to distinguish him from his male parent, and his colour

and plumage are as good as that of the adult pair. I think he is a

male, as he is much more pugnacious than the hen, and I have seen

him attack her when she is feeding from the same dish. He is very

tame and allows us to pick him up and handle him, but is frightened

of strangers.


I hope if these birds breed again next summer to be able to give

a, better account of the exact time of incubation, but as I was away

from home when they hatched and also afterwards, I was not able

to make any notes, and my gardener did not keep any records.



CRIMSON FINCHES


By E. M. Lupton


It was in a shop in London I saw him, slim and graceful, sleek

and trim, gorgeous in his crimson garb, flirting his wings and his long

slender tail, and taking an inquisitive interest in everything around

him. Home he came, and Reuben he was called. After a while very

cautiously he was introduced to the aviary—in a disused billiard

room—with its mixed collection of some thirty foreign birds, both

larger and smaller than himself. But out again he had to come, and

quickly too, for obviously death was going to result, either by murder

on his part, or from heart failure from sheer terror at the look in his

fiery eye. So in a double breeding cage Reuben took up his abode,

where his beauty and his friendly ways were a delight to all.


Presently a wife was procured, more sober than Reuben in her

brown dress, but with vivid touches of brilliant red, and “ Ruby ”

was her obvious name. For some weeks love-making progressed on

■cave-man lines. When shut apart, Ruby would clamour for a peep



