Nesting Notes. 17 



My Ciouldian Finches have been a failure, at least threo 

 of mj^ hens have died in the nest from egg-binding- and allied 

 troubles. I am sure that the importation of 1910 was much 

 less vigorous than Payne and Wallace's of three years ago. 

 The last two failures I have to chronicle are the nesting of 

 Fire -finches, who built and laid twice, but did not sit; and 

 Crimson Finches who hatched four young but did not feed. 

 Zebra Finches, as usual, were very busy trumpeting, building, 

 and driving away all the rest of the community, but, 

 perhaps on account of the wet season, they seldom brought 

 off more than one or two young at a nest. On one occasion 

 theie was a clutch of twelve eggs in, what I am certain, 

 was not a communal nest, and, as far as I rememljer, only 

 two young were reared, doubtless the hen was quite unable 

 to cover such a large number of eggs. 



I have only two more facts to record, both interesting, 

 but disappointing to me. In the early spring I bought what 

 I thought was a pair of Scarlet Tanagers — an adult hen and 

 a young cock. These I turned out of doors in May, and in 

 June I had sudden visions of a medal, a certificate, and 

 world-wide notoriety, for the hen had built quite a nice nest 

 in a Privet bush. She sat for a day or so, and then deserted. 

 I then found that the whole performance was make-believe, 

 and that she had not laid a single egg. 



It was only some weeks later that I discovered her to be 

 a hen Black Tanager, and that my supposed young male was 

 really a hen Scarlet Tanager. The other event I referred 

 to was what I took to be an attempt at building on the 

 part of a hen Golden -fronted Fruitsucker, but it may only 

 have been play, for these birds are, to my mind, very " un- 

 birdlike." The bird in question spent hours daily for tlie 

 best part of a week winding a piece of tow round the branch 

 of a bush; no sooner was this important work finished than 

 it was carefully unwound and begun again. I offered her other 

 and more substantial materials, but she literally turned up her 

 bill at them. I should much like to know if others who have 

 kept Chloropsis have had similar experience, and whether 

 the habit is confined to any particular sex. Another curious 

 feature of these birds is the pulling off of leaves and playing 

 " catch " with them. I have heard from a well-known avi- 



