Nesting of the Buse-breasted Grosleah: 235 



red being so coiispicuou.s that, the eye is quickly drawn to the 

 bird in a mixed collection. Tiie [cjiiale is altogether dilTer- 

 ent, hej' plumage mostly ochre -brown, streaked and spotted 

 with darker brown, or black; under wing coverts orange - 

 yellow. Last winter my i^ir were turned loose in a disused 

 bedroom, and in May they gave indications of going to nest. 

 In the branches of a dead spruce lii', which reached i'rom 

 floor to ceiling ol the room, a nest Avas commenced, but it 

 was very unsubstantial and oi no u.-e lor containing a family. 

 In June the female placed a few bents, etc., in a canary nest- 

 box of wood with i^erforated zinc bottom, and laid two or 

 three eggs, which were broken. tSeeing that they evidently 

 needed help, I procured a blackbird's nest and fiimly iixed 

 it in the canary nest -box, and the hen bird at once appropri- 

 ated it. 



It was about nine feet up and close under the ceiling, 

 so I could not see what was going on, but in the middle 

 of June I bound e'^Q shells on the floor from which young birds 

 had evidently been hatched. 



The shells wei'e of a pale-blue colour blotched and 

 spotted with rufous-umber with a bruad unbroken belt, or 

 I'ing, of rufous -unibei' round the stouter end. 



both sexes shared the duties of incubation and brooding 

 the young. Dr. Russ records the nesting of these Grosbeaks 

 in lii;s bird-room and that the hen alone incubated. Eecorded 

 lield notes of this species abundantly coniirm the fact that 

 both sexes incubate and brood the young — in point of fact 

 the male bird being more frequently met with on the nest than 

 the female (see notes by Mr. U. O. Tracey in the " Ornithol- 

 ogLst and Uologist, Vol. X., p. 37). My bird's demeanour fully 

 coincided with the published notes of their wild life, and I 

 believe my male was often on the nest all night. 



The Hose -breasted Grosbeaks have proved themselves 

 to be most harmless to other birds, for in the same room 

 where they nested (quite a 'small one too) there was the follow- 

 ing collection of mostly rate birds: pairs of Parrot Finches, 

 Blue Budgerigars, Eed- headed Gouldian Finches, Hooded Par- 

 rakeets {Psephotus cucullatus), Australian Fire-tailed Finches 

 {ZoiiccyuiUms hellas), and two pairs of Hooded Siskins {Chrijs- 

 oiiiUris cucullatus), all of which were often seen perched quite 



