37°



Mr. W. E. Teschemaker



Grey-winged Ouzels. One young male reared to maturity.


Nested twice; second brood destroyed.


Rose-breasted Grosbeak. One young one reared to maturity.

Stanley Parrakeet. Four young ones.


Queen Alexandra Parrakeet. One young one. killed by

some other Parrakeet when a fortnight old.


Not a very encouraging report!



THE NESTING OF THE SPROSSER.


Daulias philomela.


By W. E. Teschemaker, B.A.


(Concluded from page 3247.


The courtship of the male was a delightful thing to watch.

With drooping wings and tail spread fan-wise and carried erect

in Peacock fashion he would run up and down a ledge a few feet

from the ground, gazing solicitously downwards at the female on

the ground below and singing incessantly. Another distinctive

feature of the courtship of the male was quite new to me, and

may perhaps be peculiar to the Sprosser. He would make a

kind of dash at the female from a distance of a couple of feet

and, just before reaching her, would spring in the air, apparently

turning a complete somersault, and drop to the ground again on

the spot from which he started, repeating the performance several

times.


The female, however, did not require much courting.

Unlikely as it may appear, this insectivorous bird, reputedly

delicate, caught in Central Europe in early May and sent by rail

and steamer a distance of more than a thousand miles, commenced

a nest in Devonshire on the 25th, completed it on the following

day, and by the last day of the same month in which it was trapped,

had laid its full clutch of four eggs. Of course this is a very

unusual experience, but, whatever view we may take of it, it

tends to prove that a Nightingale may be trapped even in the

breeding season and despatched on a long and trying journey

with so little shock to its mental or bodily health that it is willing

and able to breed in captivity within a month of the date of its

loss of liberty, and furnishes a convincing answer, I think, to



