14 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



Bicans says, when it utters its loud note at the com- 

 mencement of the rainy season, it cries that rain is 

 coming. Its favourite food consists during the dry 

 season of the small fruits of various wild species of 

 figs, which it finds in extraordinary (juantilies on the 

 large trees of the genus Ficus, which are always covered 

 with foliage." 



The nest is built in hedges and other low shrubbery 

 in tlve months of April and May ; it is formed of slend-er 

 twigs, rootlets and fibres, and lined with still finer roots 

 and bents. The cintch consi.st* of three eggs with a pale 

 brownish green ground tint, spotted and speckled with 

 red-brown, most densely at the larger end, where they 

 form a conilu<?nt mas-;. 



According to Mr. A, Boucard (Prcc. Zool. Soc, 1878, 

 p. 50), this species is very abundant at San Jose 

 during the fruit season, and is particularly fond of a 

 fmall fruit called " oeresa." He says : "I have two 

 eggs of this bird, found in, one nest built in the centre 

 of an aloe growing on the road. They are green, with 

 rufous spots." 



According to Russ, this species is more frequently 

 imported than the other Thrushes. He says : " I received 

 a male from Mr. L. Rulie, in Alfeld, and am therefore 

 able to describe it from the living bird. Mr. H. 

 Burghard, of Halle, pcs-sessed a Gray's Thrush for a 

 long time, and says it always keeps in good plumage 

 and clean in a cage, also it is not so stupidly nervous 

 as other Thrushes ; its moult is got through quickly and 

 satisfactorily. The call-note resembles that of our 

 resident Greenfinch, and sounds like schwoinz, only 

 with the distinction that the tone is deeper and niuch 

 weaker. This Thrush feeds greedily upon all kinds 

 of fruit. It is an luiusually industrious songster, even 

 during its change of plumage. The song resembles 

 that of the Song Thrush, yet is much deeper and weaker 

 in tone, for which reason it is preferable as a chamber 

 biixi." 



After what Dr. Frantzius says about the irritating 

 character of the song of this species, and Mr. Burghard 

 as to its resemblance to that of the Song Thrush, except- 

 ing in its deei>€r and weaker tone, it is rather sur- 

 prising to continue Dr. Russ's account and note how 

 highly^it is praised by Sclater (presumably Dr. Sclater), 

 and to see an effort later on (in imitation of Beckstein's 

 attempt to record the song of the Nightingale) to reduce 

 the whole |)erformance of Gray's Thrush to words run- 

 ning into twenty-seven separate phrases, with appro- 

 priate comments. One would think so varied a song 

 must be the result of the carefully recorded utterances 

 of several individuals, for if not the statement of Mr. 

 Burghard must be a rank libel, and that of Frantzius 

 a blasphemy only possible to a man with no ear for 

 music. 



Blackbirds or Ouzels (Memla) 



Grey-wingki) Blackiiird {Meriila hnulhnul). 



Male, above black, with a large whitish-bordered 

 dust-grey patch, formed by the greater coverts and 

 outer webs of the middle flights, on the wing; under 

 surface slightly paler, with greyish mottlings on the 

 sides somewhat after the fashion of the Ring Ouzel. 

 The female is brownish ashy, paler below, the wing 

 patch red-bmwn with whitish borders ; bill, orbital 

 ring and feet orange-yellow ; eyes brown. 



According to Jerdon, " found throughout the whole 

 extent of the Himalayas, keeping generally to an eleva- 

 tion from 5,0C0ft. to 8,000ft. It is tolerably common, 

 but rather shy, and does not show itell in the open- 

 er in gardens so much as the Neilgherry Blackbird, and 

 its song is, I think, hardly equal to that the Neilgherry 



bird. I obtaiaed the nest at Darjeeling, made of twigs, 

 roots, and moss, and with three or four eggs of a pale 

 blue-green, with numerous light brown spots." (" Birds 

 of India," Vol. I., pp. 525-6.*) 



Formerly this was an extremely rare bird in the 

 trade, our Zoological Gardens being, I believe, the first 

 to possess it ; even now I think the only specimens in 

 the country are those hand-reared and imjiorted by 

 Mr. E. W. Harper about the year 190i!. of which he 

 gave me one specimen on February 13th. 1904. 



When the winter was over, Mr. Allen Silver having 

 kindly obtained for me a healthy female English Black- 

 bird, I turned the pair into a large garden aviary in 

 the hope of breeding hybrids from them, but owing to 

 the interfereni-e of an English cock Blackbird, which 

 persistentl.v hung about the aviary and fought the 

 Indian bird through the wirework all through the 

 summer and up to the end of February, 1905, no 

 attempt was made at breeding; however, with a little 

 trouble we caught and ca^od the offender (which makes 

 a very nice song-bird). About June 10th or 11th my 

 birds built high up in the most sheltered corner of the 

 aviary, the structure being formed of liay and twigs 

 compacted with a mixture of mud and dead leaves, and 

 lined with finer hay. 



I have no doubt that in the first day after the hatch- 

 ing of the three eggs the young were fed almost 

 entirely upon volk of egg selected by the cock bird 

 from the soft food mixture, for they must have hatched 

 out quite a day before I discovered the fact and 

 began to supply the parents with abundante of worms 

 and cockroaches; even after that the egg was always 

 picked out and carried up to the young before the old 

 birds hel|>ed themselves. I first heard tlie voices of 

 the young on July 3rd, and on the 6th I was unfor- 

 tunately away from home until the evening, so that 

 worms were not supplied so frequently, and in con- 

 sequence two of the young died : the third was com- 

 pletely reared, but pioved to be a hen, and almost cf a 

 uniform olive-brown colour. 



In 1895 a nest was built upon the top of the previous 

 year's structure, and the hen began to sit on May 31st: 

 the first youngster was hatched on June 14th, and I 

 had to work hard to supply the birds with worms. As 

 on the previous year, three eggs were laid, all hatched, 

 and on this occasion all were happil,T reared ; they 

 assumed their adult plumage about October, and proved 

 to be two males and one female, the males black but 

 much browner than either of the Ouzels from which 

 they were bred, especially on the under-parts, and with 

 a red-brown )iatch on the wing answering to the gre.v 

 patch of the (riey- winged Ouzel, the bill, and orbital 

 ring orange-.yellov, but the feet brown nearly as in the 

 English bird. The female was very different from its 

 sister of the previous year's hatehing, being almost like 

 a typical hen Grey- winged Ouzel. 



When the Grey-winged bird fir,st came into my pos- 

 session it had very little idea of fong ; but after a few 

 months sjient outside it sang a very resi>ectable com- 

 bination song, evidently picked up from the Song 

 Thrush, Blackbird, and Wren. The young hybrids do 

 not sing so well, their voices being much harsher. Per- 

 haps with a deterioration in colour due to reversion 

 towards the type from which the two ])arent stocks 

 have descended", there may be a correlated deterioration 

 in the character of the vocal organs, and a consequent 

 return to a mgie_aavage and uncultivated attempt at 

 music. 



• 1 have quoted a fuller account of the lastinB-hnliits from 

 Oatei' cditiun of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds " in a paper 

 puljlished in The Avicullural Magazine, N.3., Vol. III., pp. 246-7. 



