J. E. Sweetnam—Notes from a Berkshire Aviary 319


and proved most exemplary parents. In steadiness they vie with

Barbary and, though confined in a small aviary they have, so far, shown

no tendency to attack their young. Whatever species or subspecies

they eventually turn out to be I hope to propagate them as very suitable

for aviculture. They feed from the hand and seem quite devoid of that

nervousness which makes so many species of Dove an annoyance rather

than a pleasure.


In September I was fortunate enough to secure—-at a price !—

two pairs of that rare and beautiful species the Painted Finch (Emblema

picta), which I am informed is now scarce even in Australia. These

were privately imported and said to have been aviary-bred. One pair

I passed on to my friend, our member Mr. Gerald de Pass, and, being

so late in the season, put the other pair in an attic which I have had

adapted as an inside aviary, with a small flight-cage and “ central

heating ” designed mainly for winter use. A week later this pair seemed

to be interested in a wire-netting cylinder partly filled with hay, placed

low down in the aviary. On inspecting this a few days later I found it

contained three eggs, apparently deserted by their owners. The hen

Painted Finch had started to moult. As previous experience has warned

me never to discard derelict eggs in an aviary containing any rare

birds, I optimistically gave two of these to a pair of Ruficaudas and the

other to Bengalese—both these pairs having just started incubation.

At the moment of writing it looks as though my optimism was to be

rewarded for in the Bengalee nest there is one youngster, which is

certainly a Bengalee, and another which as certainly is not; while the

other nest contains at least one fledgeling unlike any young Ruficauda

I have ever seen.


It may be expecting rather much to rear Painted Finches in an

unheated outside aviary at this time of the year. Should I be fortunate

enough to do so I will ask our Editor to include a further note about

them next month. According to that benefactor of Aviculture,

Dr. Hopkinson, they were bred by Mr. H. Willford in 1910, and (from

the same pair) by Mr. Mathias the following year, and by A. J.

Patterson in 1935, but apart from a short article by Mr. Seth-Smith

and an excellent plate in Yol. X (1932) of the Magazine, there does

not seem to be much information available. In his valuable book on



