2SS


the West Indies, is very seldom brought alive to Europe, and

when, in the autumn of last year (igor) some of these birds were

imported by Mr. Parker, of Frodsham, and offered for sale, I

was tempted to try a pair in my aviar} r . On arrival I found that

the male was unable to fly, and an examination shewed that one

of its wings had been seriously injured, presumably by a shot.

Mr. Parker, however, promised to do his best to secure me

another specimen from the West Indies, and early last spring a

fine male arrived. The female was as wild as a hawk from the

first, but the male, which was said to have been bred in captivity

in Jamaica, appeared at first to be quite tame. He soon, however,

caught the wild fever.


Although very timid, it was evident, soon after the arrival

of the male, that the pair intended to rear a family; but they

were so wild that I hardly expected they would succeed in their

object. Whenever one approached they would fly up with a

tremendous commotion, scaring every other bird almost out of

its wits. However, as the weather became warmer and the birds

were allowed to fly into the outside wire enclosure, the White-

crowns were left more in peace, and they built a nest forthwith.

In each of the first two nests one egg only was laid, and it was

hatched in both cases, but the young bird, when about a fortnight

old, was left, and a new nest begun. In the third attempt two

eggs were laid, which were transferred to a pair of tame pigeons,

which had been kindly lent to me by one of our members for the

purpose. These hatched and fed the young ones also until they

were nearly able to fly, when they apparently discovered that

the ugly little dark grey birds were imposters, and promptly

discontinued to feed them. The White-crowns had, meanwhile,

laid again in a very quiet corner of the aviary, in some faggots,

about four feet from the ground. Here they were entirely

undisturbed, the consequence being that a fine young bird left

the nest on the first of July. It was nearly as large as its

parents, and of a dirty brownish - grey colour all over. No

white was visible on the crown, although the feathers on that

part were slightly lighter than those on the other parts of its

body.


From the first day it left the nest this youngster was as

wild as it could be, dashing itself about whenever anyone went

into the aviary, and it finally succeeded in scalping itself in one

of its mad headlong dashes.


The parents have since reared a pair of nestlings which

were hatched on August 8th, and left the nest about August 30th.



