222



Dr. Maurice Amsler,



crowded High Street of Eton singing his monotonous song, but no

one but myself seemed to realise that he was an alien.


The liberty of the parents had, of course, to cease before the

young Cardinals left their nest.


I intend to repeat my experiment this year.


A pair of Diamond doves reared three young from their

nests, but only two of these reached maturity.


Finally, my pair of Malachite Sun-birds, from which I had

hoped the impossible, very naturally disappointed me. They built

a nest in a Plumbago cagiensis covering one end of my greenhouse,

after which the cock chose to go out of colour.


The mixture of condensed milk, honey, etc., may turn out

show-birds, but I do not think it is enough to get the birds into

breeding condition. I tried supplementing the routine food with

custard and fruit-juice twice a week, and occasionally a little meat-

juice or “ Virol,” all of which the birds seemed to enjoy.


The last-named food, I feel sure, saved their lives on one

occasion in November, 1915. When they had been improperly

fed, and were so perished with cold and hunger that I was able to

pick up the pair of little sufferers in one hand with never a flutter

or movement on their part, they reminded me very forcibly of

hibernating dormice. A little Virol and hot water, administered

drop by drop with a fountain-pen filler, put them on their feet in

no time, and the following day, after a good feed, they were as well

as ever.


These honey-eating birds—by which I mean Sun-birds,

Sugar-birds, and Humming-birds—appear to become somnolent

when suffering from cold or want of food. Most of us know the

story of Mr. Ezra’s late-lamented Humming-bii’d, which looked

absolutely dead on arrival, but which recovered with food and

warmth to delight the heart of almost every bird-lover in England.


I have hopes of doing better this year in spite of the terrible

winter we have had; indeed, how few of us would persist in bird¬

breeding if but buoyed up by this perennial resolution—to do better

in the coming year, and what an example to the rest of the world.

Are we aviculturists ?


So far there is not much going on although I am writing at



