All Rights Reserved. November and December, 1923 



BIRD NOTES. 



THE 



Journal of the Foreign Bird Club. 



Breeding of the White-capped Tanager. 



(Stephanophorus hucocephalus). 



By a. Decoux. 



White-capped Tanat^ers have never been numerous on 

 the bird market. In 1920 I considered myself very hicky in 

 finding- a hen in a Bordeaux l)ird-shop; later a dealer sent me 

 another White-capped Tanager, wliich, fortunately, proved to 

 be a cock, so I was the proud ])ossessor of a true pair of this 

 uncommon and Ijeautiful species. 



I find these Ijirds hardy, and easy to feed. In my aviary 

 they eat ripe fruit — cherries, apples, pears and bananas; milk- 

 sop, and insectile mixture made of boiled potato and egg" 

 mashed together, to which I add some spoonfuls of Duguisne's 

 powder (a prepared French insectile mixture, Ed.); they are 

 fond of insects, and greedily eat mealworms and fresh ants' 

 eggs (cocoons). 



In 1 92 1 they were put into a small aviary, with other 

 inrectivcrous birds. They spent all the summer there without 

 making any attempt to g'o to nest. The cock used to sing 

 early, at daybreak in fact. In October they were caught up 

 and caged in one of my heated birdrooms. By the way these 

 birds do not seem to suffer from cold, and I think it would be ' 

 quite possible to keep them out of doors all the year round, 

 if they were compelled to spend winter's nights in a dry, 

 comfortable shelter. 



This year, in the month of April, I put them into a larger 

 aviary, which was thickly planted with various species of shrubs 

 and tall grasses, and contained some pairs of various 

 Australian finches. Red-collared Whydahs, various species of 

 Doves, and one pair of Red-crested Finches {Coryphosp'uigus 



