Early Stray Xotcs. 29 



dishes I had to separate them. The one left now spends mucli 

 of its time fighting" with a hen Mistle Thrush, and they have 

 royal battles, but the worst of it is they do not confine their 

 attacks to their own species or each other, but do not hesitate 

 to Hy at such large birds as Satyra Pheasants, which, as well 

 as the waders, they easily drive away from the feeding dishes. 

 My African Olivaceous Thrush, which was singing very nicely 

 in November, much to the astonishment of the common 

 thrushes round about, which used to come and sit on the top 

 of the aviary to listen to him. is now silent, and I think that he 

 has got a touch of liver; the Bobolinks have been singing ver\ 

 nicely the last few days. I am hoping to get nests from all 

 these birds this coming season, and, as I believe none of them 

 have yet been bred in this country, I hope to have something to 

 write about for publication in " B.N." 



With regard to the season now past. I think that I have 

 given our readers a fairly good account of most of the happen- 

 ings in my aviaries, and I wish that other members would follow 

 my example, when the labour and anxieties. of our Editor would 

 be considerably lightened. There were, however, one or two 

 other episodes that may interest. Amongst these was the 

 rearing of a Common Quail. T had had the parent birds for 

 two seasons in one of my medium-sized aviaries, where they 

 made no attempt at nesting. Last season I turned them into 

 my large Waders' aviary, where they promptly lost themselves 

 in the thick cover. Early in the spring I heard the cock callin'^ 

 a good deal, but we did not see them for several months, and 

 had, in fact, given them up for dead, when one day, whilst 

 looking for a finch's nest, I flushed the hen and one young one 

 about half-grown. T don't know^ whether more were hatched, 

 but we never saw them, nor did a diligent search reveal the 

 eggshells or nest. The young Ouail is now indistinguishabi ^ 

 from its parents, and has wintered out without any shelter 

 whatever. In a near-by aviary a cock common quail with a hen 

 African quail did not nest, but I am inclined to think that this 

 was to some extent due to the interference of my little Tem- 

 minck's Courser. This charming little bird made violent 

 ]ove first to the South African hen, and afterwards, when the 

 cock Egyptian was turned down, to the latter; it was extremelv 

 amusing to watch these birds take mealworms from the bill of 



