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compiled the following. The birds after being some time in the aviary duly 

 mated; a piece of a tree root, with a rotten cup-shaped hollow in it, was 

 wired close up against one of the roof joists and was soon appropriated, a 

 few bits 'of sticks constituting the nest. T lie first egg was clear, after an 

 interval another was laid which was unfortunately broken, four days later 

 another was laid from which a young chick was duly hatched after being 

 incubated about fourteen days. The young bird left the nest when fourteen 

 days old. Both birds fed the voting one, but the cock principally. It was 

 reared on mealworms, but many flies were captured and given to it. It was 

 first observed to pick up a little food for itself when five weeks old, but did 

 not feed itself to any extent till it was seven or eight weeks old. The 

 young birds hatched at Zoo thirty. seven years ago, only lived to be barely 

 five weeks old (see note in September issue) and it is extremely doubtful if 

 they were then independent of their parents. Mr. Brook's success is the 

 more noteworthy in that the young bird has lived to assume adult plumage. 

 On October 17th it was practicallv indistinguishable from its parents. 

 Nesting plumage : General body colouring dirty grey, lighter on the under 

 surface, more or less striped with dull greyish-yellow ; beak, legs and feet 

 horn-coloured ; the beak is very short. Mr. Brook is to be congratulated 

 on his success, which we may hope will be repeated next season, that the 

 foregoing interesting facts may be confirmed or variations duly noted. 



THE FAIRY BLUE- BIRD [Irena turcosa) : This gorgeous and 

 delightful species now imported by Mr. Good fellow for the first time, is 

 worth v of more than a passing notice, for it is among the most brilliant of 

 birds and of a colour that is not by any means numerous, for nature appears 

 to have been rather sparing of her blues. It is not a small species, measur- 

 ing 10 inches over all, tail 4 inches. In contour it is very similar to the 

 Oriole, it has a loud and melodious warble which is constantly uttered, and 

 judging from the accounts of various travellers and naturalists must indeed 

 be a fascinating bird to meet in its native wilds, and equally so in the roomy 

 cage or aviary. Beautiful as it is in repose, this is far exceeded when it is 

 seen with expanded wings and tail as it flies from branch to branch feeding 

 the while on various luscious fruits. In the aviary this display of gorgeous 

 plumage would be very fine and a sight long to be remembered, but I fear 

 for some time to come it will gladden the vision of only a few. 



The adult male has the whole of the upper surface and also the 

 under tail-coverts refulgent cobalt-blue, with the wings, tail and entire 

 under-surface glistering velvet black. 



The female is of a duller blue, entirely lacking the refulgence of the 

 male, she has no black areas, her plumage being entirely blue, slightly 

 mottled. Nevertheless she also is a beautiful bird, but dull by comparison 

 with her more brilliantly clad lord. 



Jerdon, in his "Birds of India," describing pue/la, states that it is 

 found iu the dense and loftv forests of Malabar and Travancore, also in 



