4 White- eyes (Zosterops) 



sect life; except for one short hour at mid-day, and for very 

 short intermittent spells, this activity is kept up during the 

 live-lon^^ day. When they do, for sbort spells, hop about a 

 tree or bush, apparently without an object they are more 

 charming still. While engaged in the duties of house building, 

 incubating, or caring for a family, they are even more fascin- 

 ating and when the little family leave the sheltering walls of 

 "White-eye castle," the sight is bewitching indeed, and thus 

 one could wander on, but the story has been already told 

 (see B.N. Vol. II. N.S., p. 226), though for the benefit of riQ^ 

 readers I will recapitulate the main facts, in a few, I fear 

 very jerky sentences. 



Nest containing three eggs discovered on the evening of June 

 27th (I deduce clutch only completed that day). 



Three chicks hatched early morning July 7th. 



Three fully-fledged birds left the nest July 17th (eveuingK 



Young birds fending for themselves August 1st. 



Callow Young: quite naked, pinkish flesh -colour and very 

 minute (a lady visitor likened tliem to caterpillars;. 



Incubation period 10 to 11 days. 



Nestling plumage, similar to adults, but not quite so intense, 

 but did not get the white eye -rings till the twenty -fourth day af- 

 ter leaving the nest. 



The eyes of the chicks were open on the morning of tlie 

 fifth day. 



For the first four days the young were fed entirely on small 

 insects (blight, etc.), captured in the aviary; on the fifth day tney 

 accepted small mealworms, but killed tliese before feeding their young. 

 On the morning of the tenth day they also began to feed with ripe 

 fruit. 



The parent birds carried out the fseces of tlie young in their 

 bills, only dropping it when obscured by the foliage. 



This species can certainly be wintered out of doors 

 in Surrey without difficulty, and I think Miss Hawke has 

 so kept one of the African species, but some of the species 

 would need careful testing in this respect, some, I consider, 

 would need the protection of four walls and a roof during 

 the winter, and, unless put out in the early spring, all are 

 best brought indoors for their first winter in this country but, 

 can go out of doors in late April or early May and appear 

 to be quite unharmed by the variations of our English spring. 

 They helped themselves to insectile mixture, ripe fruit, 

 and milk ^op freely in my aviary, also capturing many insects 



