322 Breeding of Green Cardinals. 



ever, did not at all approve of my assistance, and for two 

 days absolutely deserted the nest. She then, I suppose, decided 

 to put up with the nuisance, and re -commenced her incubating 

 duties, though I had small hope of any result, as incubation 

 had commenced before all this occurred, and I felt convinced 

 the eggs were spoiled. These fears, however, proved ground- 

 less, and to my great surprise, on July 17th, I saw her feed- 

 ing young birds. On July 30th, the first youngster left the 

 nest, followed at intervals by three o'hers, the last leaving the 

 nest on August 1st. 



A very satisfactory result! The fertility of the birds 

 I considered remarkable, for every egg of the two clutches 

 (seven in all) hatched out. The hen certainly is not a young 

 bird, for she was adult w^hen I bought her three years ago. 



The parent birds were supplied with soft food, live ants' 

 " eggs," wasp grubs, and a few mealworms, but on this occa- 

 sion, the young were reared almost entirely on wasp grubs. 



The parents proved to be more devoted to their young 

 than has been the case with any other species I have bred. 

 Especially does this apply to the male parent, who continued 

 to feed and generally look after his progeny long after the 

 hen had ceased to notice them. He was still feeding them, 

 about the middle of September, when I removed them to an- 

 other aviary. Here, two of them unfortunately died, but the 

 remaining couple are still very healthy, vigorous, and ex- 

 tremely tame. 



At time of writing (October 7) the young are still in 

 nestling plumage. They have the crest well developed when 

 they leave the nest, the plumage is lighter and greyer than 

 that of the adult female and is spotted beneath with large 

 grey spots. 



Green Cardinals are, I think, a very attractive species, 

 and I strongly recommend them to anyone commencing to keep 

 foreign birds. Their song does not count for' much, and in 

 this respect they are inferior to the Ked- crested, but on the 

 other hand, they are not nearly so spiteful as the latter species, 

 and from my experience, I should say are quite easy to breed. 



Just a word of warning! Do not associate them with 

 any species of Yellow Weaver, or according to my experi- 

 ence there is bound to be trouble. 



