356 Correspondence. 



I do not know. Do they ofte?i try to nes't biernre .""ct^in,;; their 

 full plumage. 



I spent the summer in British Columbia, and was much' 

 interested in the wild bird life out there. Indig-o Bunting's are 

 certainly very beautiful in their native haunts. Every evening, 

 about six o'clock, a pair of Waxwings used to come down to 

 feed in some willow brush round the house. The willows were 

 covered with some sort of b'ight, and I imagine thlat the Waxwings 

 found plenty of insect prey there. They are very handsome and 

 I was much taken with thjeir ways. I saw some very handsome 

 birds which interested me much, but as I took no notes;, the 

 following desci'ipiion is very incomplete: The birds were about 

 the size and build of a Bronze -'winged Mannikin and with muchl 

 the same sort of jiowerful looking beak, but tlieir jdumagte was 

 bright orange and black, with some broWn on rhe wings. They 

 were going about in pairs in June, so must I think nest there. 



A very temp'ting opportunity came my way while out in British 

 Columbia, of trying to hand-rear a Humming-biid. And I feel sure 

 that a more enterprising member o f the F.B.C. would have seized 

 it. But I was not in a pilace where avicultural panaphernalia 

 was easy to secure. 



I found the nest of a Green Humming Bird in a Canadian 

 cedar tree, on a branch overhanging t'li-e lake. It was a tiny 

 thing, the outside being made of liclu^n and cobwelis, the lining 

 of white willow fluff, and it contained one white eijg and one 

 youngster, just ha'^ched. Unfortunately wb.on T visited tlie nest later, 

 the young birds were ready to fly, and they did so in tlii?. direc- 

 tion of the lake, dropping into the icy water, about twenty feet 

 fmm the bank. With t'hfe help of a long 'twiggy birch branch 

 I managed to fish one out, warming and drying it quite; successfully 

 in my hand, and repilacing' it later in the nest. But the second 

 little bird had mea,nwhile disappeared, and could not lie discovered 

 even after a search a^ong the bank. TIj;^ jilumage of the one 

 young bird was almost as bright as that of the hen bird- or 

 what I took to be the hen birci — f'lr she bov^ired ■about (lurtb 

 near. Iridescent green breast, dark brown wings, a pale colmired 

 breast, very short tail, and such big dark eyes. 



E. MAR.TOR.IE HTNCKS. 



British Bird Notes. 



L.\TE NESTixfi OF Starlings. 



Sir, — It will probably interest many readers of Bird Notes 

 to know, that last Week a nest of young Starlings were being rpared 

 in an oak tree, not far from Ascot, Berks., I don't ever remem- 

 ber young Starlings at such a time of the year. 



P. F. M. GALLOWAY^ 



