The Australian Firc-Finch. 147
among the stronger of the grass stems. The eggs, fonr or five for a sitting, are
small in comparison with the size of the birds."
" Mr. J. O. Boyd informs me that a pair of these birds bnilt their nest on
the wall-plate in one of the corners of the verandah of his honse on the Herbert
River, Qneensland, utilizing the iron as a shelter to the nest. In his opinion thej'
were probabl}' indnced to do this b}' some captive compatriots placed there, and
the canary seed they picked up near their cage."
Dr. Russ calls this the "Australian Amaranth"; he sa3fs:—"If the ra5'S of
the evening or morning sun strike through the window into the Bird-room and
gild this Ornamental Finch, it indeed deserves the name of Sun-Astrild in the
fullest sense of the word.
" A male in my Bird-room was sociable, yet at times spiteful towards snrall
birds, especially defenceless yoirng ones. With hens of allied species it would
not pair.
"Since then it has been bred b}- Mr. J. Schmidt of Hamburg.
" A pair nested in 1876 in a large breeding-cage; the young however died
after eight daj'S, evidently from feeding with wet green food. In the middle of
July I let the Snn-Astrilds fly in the Bird-room, where in truth they chased the
smaller Astrilds. The}' then built, in a little open box, a nest of Agave fibres
and grass-bents, with long entrance tube, and lined with feathers. Time of inciibafion
eleven to twelve days ; after two to three weeks the 3/oung ones flew out. Young
plvmage dingy clear brown ; breast lighter; in the reddish colouring of the croup
and upper tail-feathers, recognizable as the species. In their first state of development,
to avoid disturbing them, I did not examine the young ones. The old birds
consumed at least twent3'-five mealworms dailj^ which they took out of my hand.
They courageously defended the nest; flew round me with fan-like outspread tails,
wdienever I approached it.
" I n Julj-, 1878, Herr Wiener received from J. Abrahams of London, nineteen
head.
" T h e females are more delicate than the males. Only if they arrive here in
health, thej' are with care easy to naturalize; they will then pass the winter at
flve to six degrees, Reanm., sometimes below four degrees. A pair built in a Hartz
cage a nest of leaves and thin strips of Aloe-fibres, overarched, wdth lateral narrow
entrance hole, both incubated alternately in five months and five broods, twentythree
young ones, but each time threw them out of the nest or deserted them before
they were able to fly.
"Mr. C. AV. Rex of Darmstadt, in i88i, bred three j-onng ones; nest a deep
ill
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