Birds Feeding at Night. 13 



were apparently never able to get back in tlie same way. 

 Probably the i)erch was at a Lower level, but memory is vague 

 on the point. However, the same performance was gone 

 through every night. W'herr the birds had finished their meal 

 they flung themselves down to the floor ot 'ihe cage, and then, 

 getting on to the wire netting side by side, made their way 

 upwards by a series of jerks. There was always a long pause 

 after each little jump, and it seetned a matter of minutes be- 

 fore they got to the level of the perch. Here they apparently 

 felt about till one or tb.e other found it, when they could be 

 heard clambering into their old places and finally settling 

 down with a little shake or two. The same little murmuring 

 notes could occasionally be heard during the birds' upward 

 progress, as though they were encouraging each other. 



I may say that when I first heard the fluttering and 

 the seed cracking, my idea was that a marauding mouse had 

 got into the cage. This was not the case, however. I got 

 up repeatedly and struck a light, and surprised the birds at 

 various stages in their progratnme— sometimes in the actual 

 act of feeding while perched on the tin, and sometimes at a 

 later stage clinging on to the wire side by side. 



It would appear from this that some birds will feed 

 in the dark, if the circumstances are favourable to their 

 doing so. The matter is not an unimportant one, from the 

 point of view of those whio keep small foreign birds, which 

 have to undergo an unnaturally long fast during the dark 

 night;; of our winters.. It would be interesting to know 

 whether any other members of the ("lub have any knowledge 

 of similar happenings. 



Hybrid Breeding. 



r,V W. SlIORK-n.MIA . 



The crossing of various kinds of our British Finches 

 will) I he Canary and other Serins, as w,-ll as witii each other, 

 has always been a po])ular and one niiL^lu -^ay a scientific hobby 

 in \\\\^ country. The cross-mating of the Foreign Birds, 



