8r 



^Britisb BiuD IRotes. 



Mr. Dewliiirst has a hen Greater-Spotted Woodpecker, 

 which I, personally, know to be over five years old, and which 

 has been confined in a cage most of its life. 



Mr. Schmidt kept a Nightingale in a cage for over six 

 jears. 



Mr. Cook also had, nntil qnite recently, a Nightingale over 

 five j-ears old. 



Our Member, Miss Janette Reeves, writes to me thus : — " I 

 am very keen on hybrid breeding, and if this is a hot summer 

 I hope to be very successful. I find Greenfinches make 

 delightful foster parents for A'oung Bullfinches, but when 

 these are reared by Canaries they hurt the Canaries on each 

 side of their beaks, and the places become so raw that the 

 Canaries give up feeding them. I believe this is why Canary- 

 Bullies do not live to go on the vShow Bench. My Bullfinch- 

 hybrids leave their nests when ten days old, the same as 

 ordinary Bullfinches. I have even taken away the eggs of 

 Greenfinches and given them young Bullfinches, and they 

 have started feeding at once and reared them successfully. I 

 believe Greenfinches feed on the same seeds and insects as 

 Bullfinches. Of course yon must have aviaries when Green- 

 finches are the foster parents. It is not safe to give them 

 young Canaries to rear, as these have such soft beaks that, in 

 feeding, the Greenfinches sometimes break their beaks, for a 

 Greenfinch's beak is very hard, like that of a Bullfinch. I have 

 already three Greenfinch hens sitting, two in Blackbirds' nests 

 and one in a Canary nest box, and if I find that the}' feed their 

 j-oung ones well I shall give them Bullfinches, and take away 

 the 3'oung Greenfinches. I do not take the young Bullfinches 

 until they are four or five da3's old, as the first few days they 

 require insects. 



" One year I had a nest of six Linnet-Bullies, but I did not 

 then know the value of them and so left them with their 

 parents, who did not feed them properly, so I only saved one. 

 Since that summer, which was a very liot one, I have never 

 had more than two fertile Bullfinch-hybrids' eggs in a nest. 

 Before I took in a fancy paper I actually sold hybrids for 3/- 

 each, to people who evidently knew the value of them." 



W. A. LoTT. 



