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When I first got my Zebra Waxbills I expected them to

go out of colour in the winter, but I find this is not so. The

only difference is that after the autumn moult the breast lacks

the rich orange tint of breeding plumage; just now they are

almost in full court dress.


I may say that, in my aviary, although the nest boxes only

get an annual clean, red mite (the curse of indoor aviaries and

cages) is unknown.


On a second lookilig through my note book, I find an

entry, re the Chinese Quail, to the effect that these pretty little

birds seem semi-nocturnal in their habits. They certainly sleep

during the heat of our summer afternoons, and are very active

during the twilight of our summer evenings, and I also think

during part of the night, for when I have gone, as I mostly do

during summer, down the garden the last thing to have a look

round, I have on many occasions seen them scuttling off to their

shelter (a square patch of sand, raised 6in. above floor level with

a sloping board over it, leaving only the front open) at 12.0

midnight.


I hope that in this rambling avicultural chat there will be

some items of interest.



THE ZOSTEROPS.


By the Rev. C. D. Farrar.


Years ago, I remember that Zosterops were amongst the

rarest of the rare ; of late years they have been more plentiful.

I know of few birds more beautiful in a quiet way than these

pretty little things, and they have the merit of hardiness. That

no one need be anxious about the Zosterops on the score of cold

or climatic changes is pretty evident, when I say that all this

last winter I have had some of these out of doors in a perfectly

unheated aviary in Yorkshire. A friend was over one morning,

and he would hardly believe that I really had them out until I

shewed them to him, spry and active. “ Well,” he said, “ I

should have thought the first slight frost would have finished

them off.”


I am very fond of my little spectacled friends, and

generally succumb when I am offered any by the dealers. Not

long since, I got a letter one morning offering Zosterops at a

reasonable rate. I wired that I would have a pair if in good

condition. I say this because usually Zosterops come over

nearly naked. For some reason or other, overcrowding most



