202 Correspondence 



date oil the rei^ister. and paid liltle more attention, and so you 

 may understand my suri)rise and pleasure to find two newly- 

 liatched chicks in the nest on the morniui^' of the fourteenth 

 day after. I soon i^rocured a lot of small earthworms wdiich 

 1 put in a ])an with some soil in it, and was rewarded by seeini;' 

 the mother hirtl i^et down almost at once and Ije.^in feedins;' 

 the youni^'. 



This was on May 3, and from tlien until now, June i, it 

 has been a constant hunt for earthworms and s1ul;s to keep 

 these hungry youngsters going. On May 16 they left the 

 nest, and the same day the Blackbird began making up the nest 

 again. In two days she had it plastered and lined, and laid her 

 first egg again on the 20th. 



This time she has laid four eggs, and if fertile they 

 should hatch out by the end of this week I think. On May 20 

 the young were showing" an attempt to pick at food, and on the 

 22nd could kill and swallow small earthworms. The hen still 

 kept feeding them, and even up till May 31 I saw her feeding. 

 She has been a very busy bird. 



Regarding feeding the young, the mother bird has done 

 that entirely herself. We always kept a supply of worms and 

 slugs in the pan, and it was no easy task during such dry 

 weather; then we had soft bread always handy, and lastly, 

 oatmeal made into a paste with water, sometimes mixing a little 

 finely chopped raw* meat with it. This was all she got except 

 whatever she could pick up in the aviary herself. I noticed she 

 was very fond of the oatmeal paste to feed them with after they 

 were up a bit. 



I trust this may encourage others to try for this or other 

 rare crosses, for we never know when success may come our way 



I find Hybrid breeding very interesting, and, though 

 attended by many disappointments, T have found it very encour- 

 aging. In the last three years I have been able to breed the 

 following: two Linnet-Bullies, two Redpoll-Goldfinches, two 

 Linnet-Greenies, and one Redpoll-Greenie, all of which, except 

 the Redpoll-Goldies, were successfully reared. 



In closing I should like to thank the Editor of Cage Birds 

 for his kind letters of encouragement, and wish Cage Birds the 

 success it so well deserves." — T. H. Anderson, Darvel. 



