273 



guests liave been three pairs of Chaffinches. The spot chosen 

 for the food is about eight or ten yards from the house door, and 

 when there is no food these birds frequently come cheeping 

 right up to within a yard of the door. They never show the 

 slightest sign of fear. I have also a pair of Tomtits who will 

 visit a mutton bone or other tit bit hung in a trellis arch, and 

 feed off it quite regardless of my near presence, i.e., three yards 

 off. 



When standing near the feeding ground the Sparrows 

 will come and feed without taking any notice of me, but the 

 Starlings, of which there are generally two or three pairs, will 

 not come to ground, but will perch close by on a post or large 

 shrub and swear heartily at seeing the Sparrows clearing the 

 table, every now and then making an abortive attempt to gain 

 confidence enough to alight, but invariably returning to their 

 perch after a circuit of about a foot or so, and finally quitting 

 it altogether to seek other fields on finding that T do not give 

 way. A. H. CrEvSWEI.!,. 



A HOLOCAUST. 



Sir, — A correspondent recently sent me seven dead birds,^ 

 requesting me to tell her what had caused their death. 



Of the seven, three were Budgerigars and four Madagascar 

 Lovebirds. They had all lived together to the number of 

 thirty or forty in a garden aviary, and were perfectly healthy 

 and in good condition. 



The gardener had left them all right at 5 o'clock, and when 

 he went to look at them in the morning there was only one to be 

 seen in the aviary, a Canary ; all the rest had unaccountably 

 disappeared. He searched all round for some weak place in the 

 aviary where the birds might have escaped, without finding 

 any. 



The door was securely padlocked as usual, so that they 

 could not have been stolen, and 011 entering the aviary he only 

 saw a few featliers scattered about, and no trace of any bird but 

 the one Canary already mentioned. 



What could have become of them } 



On looking about again he saw the tail of a Budgerigar 



