2i8 Nesting of the Fieldfare, Etc. 



my efforts to l)ree(l them were not successful, which is perhaps 

 not to 1)0 wondered at, as both birds turned out to be males. 

 The sexes are very much alike, bu' the male is darker and a trifle 

 lari^'er, and is an altoi^ether handsomer bird than his mate. I 

 do not think that I should have any diflficulty in sexin.s^- them now, 

 at any rate in the breedinj^" season. My pair first shewed sii.vns 

 of nesting' in June. The hen, a very tame bird and usually mute, 

 at tliis time i^'reeted me, when I entered the aviary, with a low 

 and p!ainti\e whistle. I at first thoui^ht that she was ailing", as she 

 looked very mopish and kept a good deal to the thick cover. A 

 careful watch she\vcd that the cock was paying her a good deal 

 of attention, and one day I was very pleased to see her carrying 

 building material. She selected, as a site for her nest, and old 

 Doves' nest in a dead spruce fir. ( )n this she built a large nest, 

 mainly composed of dry grass, fibrous roots and lumps of hair. 

 When to all appearances it was completed, she started in to line 

 it with mud, bringing lumps in her l)eak from the banks of the 

 pond, as large as a walnut. When she had covered the bottom 

 ,'ind sides with this to hei* satisfaction, she lined it with fine grass, 

 and then laid four eggs. These I had expected to find similar 

 in colour and markings to those of the Missel Thrush, for this 

 is how they are described in one of my bird books, but they were 

 really quite different, closely resembling the eggs of the Black- 

 bird. They were slightly smaller than those in the nest of the 

 latter bird in one of my other aviaries, and were of a darker 

 shade of green; still I believe that in my Ijoyhood days T took 

 blackbirds' eggs that could not have been distinguished from 

 them. The cock fieldfare took no part in the nest building opera- 

 tions, bttt guarded the nest in the absence of the hen. He is 

 naturally a very wild bird, but he now became comparatively 

 tame. Unfortunately an indiscreet action on my part caused the 

 hen to desert the nest. Thinking that, as it was very much ex- 

 posed, it would be well to provide some artificial shelter, I had 

 niy man place a sheet of galvanized iron on the netting, immedi- 

 ate'y over the nest, but this well intenti-Mied action was resented, 

 and the hen did not go near it again. [ lowever, within ten days 

 she was again nesting, this time in a box suspended from the 

 roof of the aviary. She now became qtiite fierce. Evidently 

 her first failure had soured her temj^er. On one occasion when 



