304



Correspondence.



bird inside walked out and climbed up beside its companion,

which promptly commenced to comb its crest with his beak.

Then they both flew away into a neighbouring tree, and were not

seen at all the next day, but the following day they returned to

the squirrels’ enclosure to which they now resort daily.


Every evening the pair take long flights round the Garden

uttering their call note repeatedly and exhibiting a rare spectacle

of parrots entirely at large, which is extremely pleasing to watch.


U. S-S.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


NESTING NOTES FROM HEVER.


Sir, —The following notes may be of inteiest to your readers. I have

a brood of three Pintailed Sandgrouse just hatched. The father is a son

of the old lien whose death I recoided some time ago, and he (the father) is

twelve years old.


Our pair of Hanging Parrots (Lori cuius gal gains) are nesting, the hen

is sitting in a hole in an old apple tree. .She is quite unapproachable, being

somewhere right down in the trunk ; she has been practically out of sight

for three weeks. Some bark from the tree and dried strips of Ancuba

leaves were taken in as nesting material. The male (who by the bye does

not get full adult plumage until he is two years old) is most solicitous,

he is much smaller than the female. I will report if there is any result. I

fancy this is the first attempt at nesting in this country of these little

parrots. E. G. B. Mkadk-Wai.do.


THE CUCKOO.


[We have received from Dr. Jones a copy of the following letter,

which appeared a short time ago in the Spectator.


To the Editor of the Spectator.


Sir, —Many are the legends about that chief bird of

augury, the Cuckoo, (the husbandman’s time-keeper) and many

also are the flowers, which, appearing about this time, take its

name and share its prophetical character. These and the

lugubrious joy of the Wryneck (expressed in the minor key in

its “ peep, peep, peep”)—a bird usually called the Cuckoo’s

mate, more appropriately its “servant,” in that it follows its

“master” almost everywhere, and at a respectful distance,—

remind me that just a year ago (May 141I1) you peimitted me to

inform your readers that I had successfully reared a young

male Cuckoo and kept it through the previous winter. As then



