274 P. P. Cholmeley—Breeding of the Black-crested Finch


And so the small boat completes its round and turns back again

towards civilization. At Pulu Dua, a two hours’ stop for loading copra,

a Besarese came out to the boat in a “ prahu ” and offered me his

treasure, trapped in the mangroves of these tiny coral islands. It

seemed well worth his price of half a shilling so I bought it. A delicate

little Yellow Bittern, Ixohrychus , faintly striped yellow on brown : a

veritable miniature Bittern. I let it out of its palm leaf cage, into a

bigger one, but it sulked and refused all the delicate morsels I could

offer it. Passing Sorong for the last time with the tiny island of Earn

just off to leeward, I lifted the tiny bundle of feathers out on deck

and perched it on the rail. Without a backward glance it stretched out

its neck, tucked its gangling feet behind it, and went fluttering and

swooping off to a new home in the mangroves.


And so the mainland of New G-uinea dips behind the horizon and a

memorable trip is over. Evening comes down over the calm water, the

ship heads towards Makassar, and the tropic moon comes up as I go

below to see that the night air is not too chill for my cargo of birds.



THE BREEDING OF THE BLACK-CRESTED


FINCH


Lo'phos'pingus pusillus (Burmeister)


By Patricia E. Cholmeley


Under the trade name of “ Pigmy Cardinal ”, I believe the first

importation of these neat, soberly attired little birds occurred sometime

in 1937. I acquired a pair of them, in March of this year, and turned

them out into a large, planted aviary, containing a mixed collection

of'little birds. It was not until towards the end of July that they began

to carry nesting material. The site chosen was in the angle formed by

the supports to one of the main cross-bars of the aviary, and very

exposed. The nest was cup-shaped, fairly tidy, and made almost entirely

of moss, and fined with feathers. The eggs, two in number, were

deep cream with reddish spots ; incubation took fourteen days. Both

eggs hatched, the young covered with grey down feathered very quickly ;



