50 The Marquess of Tavistock — My Pigmy Owl


In his letter published in the last November number of this journal

Mr. Barnby Smith describes a nest of this species which he saw in

a British Columbia apple-orchard in which the material used was

string. As a rule the materials employed are twigs and rootlets, the

structure being lined with feathers. Soon after Mr. Barnby Smith's

visit to Canada I received a letter from his nephew, Mr. Vernon Darney,

enclosing the photographs, which are herewith reproduced, of the

Cedar Waxwing with its young. He wrote from Walhachin, B.C. :

" My uncle, Mr. Barnby Smith, has just been out here en route for New

Zealand, and while he was here I introduced him to a man who is very

keenly interested in all wild life. Among other things he showed us were

photos of a Cedar Waxwing and young. My uncle asked me to obtain

copies and send them to you, as they might interest some of the readers

of the Avicultural Magazine. They were taken by Mr. John M. Schreck

in an apricot orchard at Naramata, British Columbia, in 1911.

Naramata is in the famous fruit-growing district of the Okanagan."


The food of Waxwings consists of insects and berries, and they are

not difficult to keep in captivity providing their diet is not of too

fattening a nature. They are very fond of soaked dried currants,

and these seem to be a very wholesome food with the addition of a small

quantity of good insectivorous food.


D. S.-S.



MY PIGMY OWL


By the Marquess op Tavistock

For many years it has been one of my avicultural ambitions to

possess a tame Pearl-spotted Owlet (Glaucidium perlatum). Ever since

I made the acquaintance of a charming specimen at the Zoological

Gardens I have hoped to receive an offer of one from a dealer, but it

was not until last summer that my hopes were realized in a letter from

Gamage's,only to be dashed a day or two later by another letter in which

they said that they found that the birds were really Pigmy Owls. Being at

that time under the impression that the Pigmy Owl was a very different

bird from the Pearl-spotted, I wrote back that I did not want them and

one was sold not long afterwards. Happening to call at Carnage's on



