6g



bird, and the prettiest of the three. I sent its body to Mr. Gill,

who very kindly reported on it in the December number.


On hearing that its death was due to injury, I determined

to move the Orange-cheeks back to their old aviary, for the one

in which they were at this time was also inhabited by many

larger birds than themselves ; and now that my suspicions were

aroused I began to find many other conclusive proofs. The

dead bird’s tail had been plucked out earlier, and the old birds

and the strongest young one were rapidly getting into very bad

plumage, though at first I put this down to moulting. I have

since found out that the culprit was a new arrival, a Red-crested

Cardinal. After I had moved some of the Orange-cheeks, I

found out that it pecked many of the other birds, though, strange

to say, a Lavender Finch and Cordon Bleu remained untouched.

It was only by watching in the aviary porch that I discovered

this. Sometimes one can learn more from ten minutes’ quiet

observation than by passing in and out a hundred times.


And now a very curious thing happened ; after the

Orange-cheeks were put back in their old aviary, the young

one that could not fly for so long began gradually to regain

the use of its wings, and it can now fly quite well again.

It is a very handsome bird, and the larger of the two. The other

one is strong and healthy, but at present is not in very good

feather. I suppose the young ones will now be ten or eleven

weeks old ; and the finer bird can hardly be distinguished from an

adult specimen ; perhaps it may be a shade darker, and the beak

not quite such a clear red, but that is all the difference. The

colour of their beaks began to change when they had left the

nest about a week.


I gave egg biscuit (crushed) and maw seed mixed dry (the

birds were very fond of the latter item), various grass seeds,

canary, Indian, and Italian millet, flowering grass, and an

abundance of spray millet, which they delight in. Besides this,

they had cut-up mealworms, and a few aphides off the rose trees.


The parents seem to have lost much ol their interest in the

nestlings ; but the young birds are devoted to each other. I saw

lately Orange-cheeks could be had for as little as 26 a pair.

Were I to begin again I would tie a small nest-box (with a

hinged back) to the outside of the wire front—bending the wires

just in front of the entrance hole to allow the birds to enter. If

the back of the nest-box had a small piece of glass let in, it

would be all the better ; it could have a little cloth fastened to



