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Taken from: Cassells
Illustrated Book of Canaries and Cage Birds 1878 Edition
This article written by A.F. Wiener F.Z.S.
SHARP-TAILED FINCH (Munia acuticauda) INDIA.
No English dealer’s name. German name-“Spitzschwanzige Bronze Amandine”
The Striated and the Sharp-tailed Finch are both
natives of India Southern China and Japan. Both birds are so very similar
that amateur can fairly consider them as one species, the more so as our
interest in this finch is chiefly concerned with his progeny, bred in
captivity by the Japanese. These little birds are a trifle larger than a
Bronze Manakin, but brown on the back. The head is nearly black, the lower
body dull white. The shaft of each brown feather being white, the plumage
appears striated-hence the name. The beak is bluish-black. The feet are dark
grey. Male and female are alike. An unpretending amiable little bird in the
aviary, sometimes-but not often-obtainable, and easily kept if fed like the
Waxbills.
Keeping and breeding cage-birds as a pastime or
for sale has been practised longer in Japan than in any other part of the
world, whilst our forefathers in Europe began to breed cage-birds only three
hundred years ago. The Japanese living three thousand years ago knew quite
well how to bred birds in cages as we do now. Whether it was originally the
Striated or Sharp-tailed Finch from which the Japanese bred the White
Bengalese has not been ascertained and perhaps never will be determined.
That it was one of the two is certain. We see the
singular results of a bred of perfectly white or mottled little birds being
regularly produced, descended from Brown Striated or Sharp-tailed ancestors-
another example of how birds through cage breeding may change their colours
in the same way as our old friend the Canary has done. Breeding these
little white finches has certainly been practised for centuries in Japan.
When and how the change in colour was bought about is not known, but the
birds may and should be considered as a distinct variety, for they are as
different from their ancestors as the Norwich Canary is from his forefather
of the Canary Islands. The new species or white variety of the Striated
Finch, is called
THE WHITE AND VARIEGATED BENGALESE
(Munia acuticanda[?], (Munia striata [?]) JAPAN
English dealer’s name- White Bengalese, German name- “Japanesische Movchen”
French name-“Muscades Blanches” “Bengalis Blancs”
The Zoological Society appears to have purchased
two specimens of the White Japanese variety of Munia striata in October,
1860. I do not remember to have met with any White Bengalese before 1869 or
1870, when I purchased, from a London dealer, the first birds of the kind I
had seen.
In 1871 a number of White and Variegated Bengalese
were offered to amateurs by the Zoological Gardens in Antwerp, and since
that time these birds have been offered for sale in increasing numbers, so
that latterly they are rarely absent from a well-stocked retail bird-dealers
shop.
The white variety of Japanese Manakin must not be
considered as an albino or Insus naturae as the White Blackbird, for the
bird has no red eyes, and his progeny is about as certain to be white as the
yellow Canary’s offspring is certain to be yellow. By continuous
cage-breeding carried on by the Japanese through many generations and during
centuries, a naturally brown-black bird has become pure white, or brown and
white piebald, or black and white piebald, The bill and feet of the
Bengalese are pale pink, and this colour indicates as much as the plumage,
the cage bred origin of the species, for the Striated Finch in his natural
state has a bluish-black bill and dark grey feet.
When these little birds first appeared in the
market they created quite a sensation which however soon wore out. The White
or Piebald Manakin has been bred in small cages through so many generations
that very few of the original habits and manners of their ancestors remain.
The first specimen I saw and possessed was
believed by me to be partially blind, for the bird would allow me to handle
him without stirring from the perch, and was peculiarly indifferent to the
doings of the other small finches which inhabited the same cage. He would
allow anyone of them to drive him from his chosen perch or from the
food-dishes and did not live long, Since then I discovered that what seemed
like partial blindness was only helplessness, Subsequently acquired Piebald
Manikins I allowed to fly in a large aviary, but they were completely
bewildered.
Through being bred by the Japanese in miniature
cages the imported White and Piebald Manakins seem to be almost unable to
fly, and consequently they are nearly helpless in a large aviary as a young
bird just leaving the nest. They tumble into the water, or hide in the
corners, or get into all sorts of scrapes . It is therefore advisable to
keep these birds, if not always, certainly for some time, in a roomy cage by
themselves, and then they may please their owner by their docility and
tameness.
They will readily build a sort of nest out of any
suitable material in any nest-box or other receptacle, and they will, under
favourable circumstances , prove wonderfully prolific.
The male bird is amusing, for he will take a piece
of fibre in his bill and execute a peculiar sort of dance to please his
sweetheart, whilst trying hard to sing a scarcely audible song.
When several Japanese Manakins are kept in one
cage they will all sit at night, and a good part of the day, packed in one
nest-box nearly as close as sardines are laid in a tin. Breeding , when
several pairs use the same nest as a dormitory, is of course impossible. In
an aviary these birds are apt to creep into other birds’ nests and thereby
to destroy young broods. It is therefore advisable to keep each pair of
Japanese Manakins in a cage by themselves. If once they begin to breed they
will produce a very numerous progeny, and the young will breed again when
four to six months old.
For nest building these birds will avail
themselves of any material and any sheltered spot. To rear the young brood,
millet and maw seed, both soaked in hot water and strained, should be given,
besides either soaked or fresh ants eggs and egg-food.
If the birds are stimulated too much they are apt
to degenerate in this way ; the old birds will build nest after nest, and
lay eggs without number, not caring for the trouble of hatching them
regularly, but sitting in the nests only for pleasure as many hours as it
pleases them. A young bird bred by chance will inherit this undesirable
habit , and the stock will become unfit for breeding purposes.
The best way to breed is to place one pair only of
White Manakins in a London canary breeding-cage without nest-boxes or
nesting materials, and feed them on millet and canary seed, with plenty of
green food- that is chickweed and grass flower. When the birds are in as
perfect plumage and condition as they can be, and when the weather is genial
and warm, then begin feeding them with egg-food, ants eggs, fresh or dried
or soaked, &c, and give them a nest-box and nesting materials. If the hen
bird should prove one of those restless egg-layers, deficient in the natural
instinct of sitting on and hatching the eggs, the best way is to get rid of
her. There is not much difficulty in obtaining another female, and a hen
bird which will prove a good sitter and a good mother will surely be found
if patiently looked for.Thousands of these birds are now bred annually in
Europe, and it is certain that through being kept in larger cages. And not
being over-stimulated, a more bird-like bird than the imported Japanese
Manakin will be produced. It should be stated that in the same nest may be
found pure wgite and piebalds of various shades. The young should be removed
from the breeding-cage as soon as they can feed themselves, because they
will surely creep into the nest of the parent birds when these want to sit
again, and thus disturb the second sitting
