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On three attempts at breeding sugar-birds.



I know that it is not uncommon for these birds to go to nest

in confinement, and I have heard of several cases where young have

been hatched, though as yet I believe none have reached maturity or

even lived to leave the nest. Had my birds hatched out I believe they

would have fed their nestlings on green fly and wasp grubs. The

chief difficulty appears to be that while sugar birds put on fat very

quickly and are decidedly greedy, thus becoming liable to apoplexy,

if they are not in high condition they will not go to nest and the

golden mean is hard to attain. End of chapter 2.


Chapter 3 deals with Yellow-winged Sugar-birds, of which I

had a lovely pair last spring. The hen has lived in my aviary since

the beginning of 1913. Last June she and her mate began to be

very noisy, squeaking at one another continually, the cock erecting

his head feathers and spreading his wings to show the yellow colour¬

ing. Then the hen became spiteful towards the blue sugar-birds and

they had to be removed lest harm should come to them. On the

18th June the hen began to build a nest of tow high up in the

corner of the shelter in a box branch, driving away the Indigo

buntings who also had intended setting up house there. She built

the outer part and then came a hitch, for she could not find any

lining material to her liking. Hitherto rather shy, now she became

bold and almost mobbed me to try and obtain something suitable.

I tried soft dried grass, strips of bass, deer hair, cotton wool, moss,

dead leaves, but none of them pleased. She would come and

examine them, turn them over and then resume her search. At

last I gave her some fine shavings of paper such as are used for

packing chocolates and she took to this at once and worked away as

busily as possible. The first egg was laid June 22nd, the second

on the following day and she began to incubate. For two days all

went well and then she forsook, for no reason that I could discover.

The nest was a pretty object, a deep cup firmly woven to the twigs

of the box bough ; a great deal of the white paper was used, and

altogether it was a rather bulky affair. The eggs were large and

long, very pale brown darkening with age, heavily spotted and mottled

with grey at the large end. The birds did not make a second attempt

and soon after the cock went out of colour. So ends chapter 3.



