Aviury .Notes and Episodes — 1912. 17 



parents, thouii:li it can and docs feed itsolf as well. All tlirco 

 Ivirds still roost in the nest together. 



\'ii;(;iNi\>; Uaj^dina ls {Card'nialis cardinalis) : These 

 C'ardiiials took a Ion;,'- time to settle down to business, merely 

 amusing themselves at first by filling various nesting reccj)- 

 tacles with odds and ends of hay, string and other rubbish; 

 huwfvcr, at last they began to take a more serious view of 

 lit\' and their duties to posterity, and on the ord of June 

 commenced operations by evicting a l)ulllinch from her nest, 

 and incidentally half killing her in the i)rocess. This nest 

 they enlarged and converted to their own purposes. Tlire'^ 

 eggs were laid of a greenish grey ground colour speckled 

 and spotted with brown, two of them being far more finely 

 and closely spotted than the other and rather resembled a 

 miniature Blackbird's e^g, while the other took more after 

 those; of the Missel Thrush. 



The hen sat splendidly and was usually fed by the 

 cock on tlie nest, but the eggs failed to hatch and I vq\- 

 moved them. Two of them proved infertile while the third 

 contained a dead chick. 



This disaster I again ascribe to the awful weather 

 we experienced, about this time, more especially as the nest 

 in this instance was in a very exposed place. 



The birds made no further attempt at nesting after 

 this failure, but I hope to do better with them this year. 



Spotted-backed {Ryphantornis spilonotus) -|-Black- 

 CAprEi' Weavers {R. dimidiatus) : I have identified the 

 Black -capped as H. diamidiaius, though I can't say that I am 

 ahsoluteUj certain that this identification is coriect. 



These birds paired off in May, but I did not, on ac- 

 count of their disparity in size, expect nuich to come of 

 the union. The cock began several nests, but invariably 

 pulled them to pieces again, however, about the end of duly 

 he started building in real earnest, and completed a nest al)0ut 

 the 1st of August, which the hen proceeded to line willi 

 feathers, the cock meanwhile contenting himself with liuilding 

 a series of dummy nests near by. 



The nest itself was very similar to the one I des- 

 cribed in "Bird Notes," in lUU except that in this instance 



