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Mrs. Ralph Holden,



was no more difficult or praiseworthy than the rearing of a nest of

canaries. * * *


Later. —Oct. 20th both youngsters and the old male moulted

during September, and I am glad to see I now possess a female and

two males ; the young birds are full coloured and the two males aro

indistinguishable.



REARING OF HYBRID


HYP IIAS TORN IS CUCULLATUS * II. SPILONOTUS.


By Mrs. Ralph Holden.


Thinking it might be of interest to your readers, my husband

has asked me to write a short account of the early days of a young

weaver bird which I have just succeeded in rearing by hand ; so I

plunge at once into my subject by saying that “ Squeaks ” is quite

the most delightful little bird that ever sat upon a flannel-covered

hot-water bottle and shrieked for the food with which his unnatural

parents refused to supply him.


" Squeaks ” is a little hybrid weaver—his father is a very

handsome red-necked, red-eyed Hyphcintornis cucullatus —his mother,

a more sober and elegant Hyphcintornis spilonotus, and Squeaks

himself was hatched from a very beautiful long-shaped, sky-blue

egg about six weeks ago (July). I strongly incline to the opinion

that a little brother or sister of Squeaks entered this vale of woe at

about the same time he did, but alas ! after a few days he or she

mysteriously disappeared, along with at least seven or eight little

naked, squeaking relatives, who at one time tenanted the queer

woven nests in our weaver colony. One or two small corpses were

found on the ground, a few young ones were later discovered dead in

various nests ; the rest appear to have vanished into thin air.


Perhaps the insect food we supplied to the parents was not

exactly what appealed to them (I have been told that in a natural

state young African weavers are fed on grasshoppers), perhaps we

did not provide enough of it. It is not an easy task to dig up daily

a sufficiency of absolutely fresh ants’ eggs (the only sort they care

about) to supply eight or nine gaping throats.



