Notes of the Season. 133 



and looks calmly around her. Her enclosure can be entered 

 without alarming her; she merely, with dignified gait, moves 

 out of your way. 



Though only an odd bird — 1 long for a mate for her — no 

 price could tempt me to part with her, and I do not, as a rule, 

 love odd birds; she at any rate will live her life with me whether 

 I succeed in getting a mate for her or not. Can I say more ? 



Notes of the Season. 



Bv Mrs. C. H. Re.ad. 



Perhaps a few notes of the doings of my birds during 

 their first season in this part of the world (Marshchapel, Lines, j 

 may interest my fellow members. 



Zebra Finches {Tacniopygia castanotis) ; These old 

 favourites were the first to start nesting; they have for company 

 a pair of Bengalese (Munio domcstica), and occupy an outdoor 

 cage. The Zebras appeared to be incubating on March i6th. 

 Although they still visited the nest long after the young ought 

 to have made their exit, I did not look in the nest — it was so 

 diflficult to get at. How^ever. by May 13th they had determined 

 to leave the nest for good; then we got out the nest, which 

 contained one infertile egg. 



On May 21st the old birds were nesting again, and this 

 resulted in a brood of five young birds. This was a great 

 surprise to me. for I thought they had forsaken the nest; they 

 were frequently flying about and there was no sound of young 

 birds till July 20th, when I heard the sound of violent squeaking. 

 One died on the fourth or fifth day after leaving the nest : the 

 other four were all reared and proved ultimately to be all males. 

 A subsequent nest produced tw^o more young birds. I am, 

 naturally, very pleased with my Zebra Finches, for they alone 

 have just saved me from the trying position of having to write 

 NIL as the result of the 1923 breeding season. 



Canaries: These I keep in an indoor birdroom. On 

 May 6th two hens were sitting; one deserted before the eggs 

 were due to hatch, and the other did ditto only one day before 

 the young were due to hatch ! In spite of this bad beginning 



