Editorial. 69 



talk, and allows himself to be handled without fear; mimics everything fit 

 licars, and certainly promises to l)e as j^iftcd a bird as his paren<:>;. He 'S 

 not vet full {,'-rown and is not quite so bulky as his i)areius. He is not only 

 a fjifted, but a beautiful and interesting- youn{;^ster. 



i'.ristol. February 20. 19-. (Mrs.) MARCi.M^i'rr r.LIR( iF.SS. F.Z.S. 



P.S.--1 should like to add that I <|uite aj^rec with Mrs. Koad's letter 

 about visiting- other members' aviaries. f am only too pleased to sIkj^v 

 mine anv time, bv appointment. 1 think >uch visits and ])irdly talks most 

 interestins^- to all bir<l-lover>. — M.li. 



Till' \\A.\\VI.\(; (AMPELIS uAKhCLCS). 



SiK. — In re])ly to Capt. Reeve's question re Waxwintjs : I kept several 

 fjefore the war, and had hopes of breeding them ; these, however, were frus 

 trated by some interfering Zebra h'inchcs, and though 1 caught them up. the 

 VVaxwings lost interest and made no further effort. 



They are, in my opinion, delightful aviary birds, always sleek, spick 

 and span, harmless to the smallest Waxbill, absolutely indifferent to weather 

 vicissitudes, and very handsome. They are confiding birds, and verv 

 affectionate to each other; they keep up a continual soft trilling twitter not 

 loud enough to become annoying. 



Their only faults are greediness and a disposition to lcthar,Lr\', w'-"' 

 lead to over-fatness and ultimately to fits, but if care be taken of them and 

 they are not allowed too many mealworms, they live well in a fair-sized 

 garden aviary. My birds had a soft-bill mixture enriched with grocers' 

 currants soaked and cut in half, two or three inealworms, and in the summer, 

 live ants' eggs, of which they were very fond. 



Mr. St. Quintin very nearly succeeded in breeding Waxwings, and 

 wrote an account of them in one of the early volumes of TIte Avicnltiiral 

 Magazine. 



Fyndhurst. March _'3rd, iq2J. (Miss) E. F. CHAWNER 







Editorial. 



Nksting Xotk.s : The Alarqui.s of Tavistock informs us . 



" I have an early Ring-neck Parrakeets' nest at liberty. The hen ,5 



■' a rather poor-coloured lutino. The cock unfortunately seems to have 



soine skin parasite on the face, as he has bare areas which he rubs a good 



deal. Probably he had the disease when he came, as I only bought 



him in CJctober as a freshly imported bird. They ina\ rear healthv 



" young, but, I fear, the probability is against it." 



The Lady Diinleath, writing on March 8tn. informs ns 

 tliat the three young canaries hatched out of doors (vide Feb- 

 ruary Bird Xotks, page 26) are well feathered and doing well. 

 A later note (March 20) states that all three young birds are on 

 ^he wing and flying strongly. 



