J. E. Sweetnam—Breeding the Painted Finch



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alone collected the material (in this instance hay and feathers, which

was all I provided them with) but the hen took her share in the actual

building. Both birds incubated in turn, and both were often on the

nest together, though never at night. They sat well and never left the

nest when it was approached. On the few occasions when they were

deliberately disturbed they seemed in no way perturbed, and returned

to the nest immediately.


Feeding the Young. —The parent Painted disdained meal worms

and fed the nestlings mainly on spray millet and seeding grasses,

together with such ant’s cocoons as I supplied them with. They were

certainly on the look-out for these latter, and used a considerable

quantity during the first few days, but seemed less concerned about

them as the young developed. Rightly or wrongly, I have come to the

conclusion that they would rear young successfully without any live

insect food.


On the other hand, the young birds reared by the Bengalese were

fed mainly on milk-sop, which was supplied every morning and the

dish cleared by noon, after which spray millet, seeding grasses, and

ordinary canary and millet seed was used. In the case of Bengalese

foster-parents it is hardly necessary to add that these four young were

actually reared without live insect food of any kind, and there seems

to be little difference either in size or stamina between the young so

reared and the other three.


Nesting Site. —They seem to have no decided preference in this

direction, and are now incubating in a wire-netting cylinder stuffed

with straw, which they took possession of within an hour after it was

added to the other nesting boxes in their aviary.


Juvenile Plumage. —The young are all a dull replica of the adults,

lacking only the red breast stripes and any red on the head. The

breast spots are quite evident in all the young, and they also have a

considerable amount of red on the rumps. They, naturally, lack the

distinct black and brown of the parents, and, in general appearance,

are dull brown with the breast spots, though quite distinct, observable

only on closer examination. Both mandibles of the young are black,

and the bills less tapered than those of the adults.



