Nesli?ig of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.



333



caught a glimpse of him, though we often heard noises at night

which warranted our conclusions that he was about. Then by

accident I got a clue to his procedure. I had been examining the

ivy on the large rockery which abuts on the outside wall of the

stone-built house, and on which there is the stump of an old tree

rising to about two feet above the level of the roof and situated

about the same distance from it, when I saw the vermin crawl up

the trunk, spring across to the roof and run along the top to

where the glass had been fixed, he disappeared beneath the over¬

lap of the flags and thus gained access from the top behind a

cross beam on the inner side. I determined to have him, so fixed

a length of wire netting flat across the top to prevent his escape

and made a search without success. He was inside for a week

before I again saw him, and then I discovered lie had been in the

habit of running up the inside wall and hiding in one of the nest

boxes. His requiem was sung by a handy dog and I have had

no further troubles from A/us decumanus.


I had again to re-stock the aviary, a process attended by

the usual high percentage of losses, but I do not intend to further

particularize, the recital would be a melancholy one. For the

present I am content to sit at the feet of those experts in Foreign

Bird-keeping, whose articles tell us in simple terms what to do

and what not to do, a veritable monument of Hope awaiting a

solution of the problem as to why, with all the care and attention

it is possible for an enthusiast to expend upon his subject, my

record is one which entitles me to “ The Wooden Spoon ” of

Aviculture should the Society ever deem it wisdom to award one.



NESTING OF THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.


Hedyvieles ludovicianus.


By Hubert D. Astley, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


My pair of these most beautiful Grosbeaks were turned

loose in a disused bedroom in the winter of this year, and in

May they showed signs of wishing to build a nest. They began

one in the branches of a dead spruce fir, which had been placed

so that the top of it touched the ceiling of the room, which kept

it firm. But the Grosbeaks did not succeed in building a sub-



