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tions in the adjoining aviary which necessitated much 

 hammering. The hen was oflf the nest frequently and 

 for an hour or more at a time, and I was afraid there- 

 fore that the eggs might not hatch. However, all 

 went well, and on June 25th I first heard infant voices 

 proceeding from the big box, and when July came in 

 the sounds grew louder and the seed-pans required 

 more frequent replenishing. The noise of the young 

 in the nest has been aptly described as resembling 

 " the barking in miniature of a pack of houuds." 



Two young birds left the nest on Jul}^ 31st, and 

 three more followed the next day. On examining the 

 nest a day or two after I found the sixth egg apparent- 

 ly unfertile. The tails of the young Pennants were 

 short and their wings comparatively long. They 

 were able to fly at once, but slowly and somewhat 

 erratically, and their first efforts in this direction 

 were heartrending to their owner and painful to them- 

 selves. The}^ failed to appreciate the fact that they 

 could not fl\' through the half-inch wire netting, and 

 very soon all had sore and bleeding noses. Two of 

 the five were olive-green on the back and breast, with 

 no black apparent anywhere, and crimson only on the 

 crown, throat and vent, witli just a dash of crimson 

 on the rump. Their cheeks and the outer edges of 

 their wings were blue as in the adult. The other 

 three were similar in colouring and marking to their 

 parents, except that the black feathers on the back, 

 which in the parents are edged with crimson, were 

 edged with green, and the crimson on breast, rump, 

 and head was duller and had a greenish hue. 



There must be some reason for this marked 

 difierence in colouring between j^oung from the same 

 nest, and at present my theory, founded on a limited 

 experience onl}% is that it is sexual, and that the birds 

 with no black feathers are hens and the others cocks. 

 This theory has so far been supported by a post- 



