• .
/ ' if • - /
• " T1 H H " ' I . '
The Saffron Finch. 21
excepting the inner secondaries, which have whitey-brown margins; the tail-feathers
also ditU hrown, with yellow margins; crown of head greyish-yellow, slightly
more orange on the forehead, the feathers with dusky shaft-lines; lores, face, and
throat pale greyish, the latter tinged with yellow; chest yellow; remainder of
body below whitish in the centre, yellow with ill-defined dusky streaks at the
sides; quills dusky below, with the inner webs broadly edged with yellow.
Length sii, inches.
A pair of this species which I had for some years in one of my aviaries
never attempted to breed until the winter of 1892-3, when the hen, which by that
time had acquired the bright colouring of the cock, built a nest and died eggbound:
a pair received early in 1893 went to nest almost immediately, and the
hen laid and began to sit steadily, the cock-bird feeding her from the crop at
regular intervals throughout the day; but either a Liothrix, in the same community,
stole the eggs, or they got accidentally broken, for I found the shells on the
floor of the aviary. I am now trying with a pair in a large breeding-cage.*
Herr Wiener, in Cassell's Cage Birds, says:—"The Saffron Finch, sometimes
called Brazilian Canary, is a wonderfully hardy bird, considering the climate of
the land of his birth. I found him thi'ive on very simple food, and have seen
broods of young Saffron Finches leave the nest at Christmas, as well as in spring,
summer, and autumn; in fact, they seemed to breed all the year round in my aviary."
"The love-making of a pair of Saffron Finches is a very peculiar affair, consisting
in either the male bird persecuting the hen and punishing her severely
if she be not c[uite ready to receive his advances, or if the male should happen
to be of a retiring disposition, the female may be seen pursuing him vigorously.
Then there is sure to be a family quarrel before the beginning of each brood,
and these domestic feuds frequently become so inveterate as to upset the equanimitjr
of all the other smaller inhabitants of an aviar}?."
In the case of my own first pair of this species, each alternately pursued the
other; in fact it was a kind of game like "hide and seek," the cock bird
sitting in a Canary nest-box, whilst the hen crept into a German Canary-cage,
on the opposite side of the aviary, each earnestly watching the other. Suddenly
the cock bird would swoop across towards the hen, but she, equally on the alert,
would dive through the front opening just in time to avoid him, and take up
her position in the box he had vacated; then she would be the pursuer, and the same
manoeuvre would be repeated over and over again until they wearied of the sport.
* Since writing the above this pair has brought up three 3'oung birds; they were regularly fed by both parents
from the crop, exactly after the manner of Canaries.