Aviary Notes for 1911. 281 



appeared, I suspect the Oyster Catcher as I saw it picking 

 over the remains of a dead St. Helena Waxbill, and the young 

 Zebras were very fond of being on the ground. Zebra Finches 

 are very prolific, their young are all over the aviary. 



There are still several nests, and I hope some of them 

 will " come off," thougli the season is now pretty far advanced. 



Aviary Notes for 1911. 



By Ciias. H. Row. 



The present season has apparently been, very nearly, an 

 ideal one for Foreign Bird breeding, the fine and dry wea- 

 ther having saved us from many of our usual troubles. 



Emboldened by the results of last year (when I suc- 

 ceeded in rearing five young Gouldian Finches), I put up 

 four pairs of Gouldian Finches, two pairs of Masked Finches 

 and one pair of Diamond Doves. 



Although I have not the space and convenience of 

 many aviculturists, I am the lucky possessor of three small 

 outdoor aviaries. In the first of these I put two pairs of 

 Black-headed Gouldian Finches and one pair of Masked 

 Finches; the latter were the first to settle down, and carried 

 enough hay, etc., into some pea sticks which I had placed in 

 the corner of the outside fiight to make/ a fair sized rook's nest; 

 in this 4 eggs were laid, and in due course (as far as I can tell), 

 two of which duly hatched out; this was altogether too much 

 for the proud parent — I suppose she had never been a mother 

 before; anyhow, she was so proud of those two mites, that 

 she promptly carted them round to receive the congratulations 

 of her neighlx)urs, with the result that I removed their dead 

 bodies the next morning from the seed box. However, this 

 did not discourage her, and another story was quickly put on 

 the top of the first nest, and five more eggs were laid. Once 

 more hopes ran high; in due course young were again to he 

 heard calling for food and one morning a very small young- 

 ster was found on the floor; it seemed fully feathered, but 

 did not come up to my ideas as to the correct size, it was 

 dead the next morning, it absolutely refused to stay in the nest 

 although I tried my best to persuade it to do so. Two days 



