I84 Foreign Finches in Ca/'livity.
11 r
Since writing tlie foregoing, I have noticed a few lines that were written b}-
the Secretar_v of the United Kingdom Foreign Cage Bird Societ}-, in 1892:—"I
now have a Red Head that, two j^ears ago, I got with some five others imported
in their nest feathers, sold to me as Black Heads, Of the six, four turned out
Black Heads and two Red Heads." This statement liardl}' sitpports the theor)'
that the Reels and the Blacks are one and the same, or, at an)- rate, that each
bird changes from one colour to the other ; for the original supposition that all
of the six birds were Blacks was almost unquestionably a mistake of the dealer,
who was unable to distinguish the different varieties owing to the birds having
been in their nest feathers whilst in his possessiou.
The colours of the descendants of a Red-faced bird paired with a Black-faced
nia\- be expected to be erratic ; but ni}- own firm opinion is that, in a state of
nature, as a rule the Reds will pair with the Reds, and the Blacks with the
Blacks, and that each variety will breed true to colour.*
REGINALD PHILLIPPS."
In 1893 I purchased a pair of supposed Black-head Gouldians; at the following
moult the hen bird developed a few red feathers on the crown onl}-, and these she
retained through the succeeding moult; she died just in time to take her place
upon my plate : Wr. Abrahams thinks that she was a Red-head too weak to develop
her proper colouring; but to me it seems far more probable that she was a Blackhead
with a strain of red blood in her.
Illustrations from living examples and skins in the author's collection.
* This opinion, however, seems not to be borne ont either b}- the statement of Dr. Ramsay's collector,
or by the experience of those who have kept both phases to,^ether in large aviaries : personally I think it
tolerably certain that, in a state of natnre, the females always prefer the Red-headed males, A,G,B,
. 1 : 1
ih!