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F. W. H. Seppings,



The Redrumps began to go to nest in the last days of February,

but in March the cock was so excited that he killed the hen before she

had laid her eggs.


The three pairs of Black-cheeked Love-birds (Agcipornis

nigrigenis), after laying some clear eggs, hatched and reared four, four,

and three young respectively, but did not nest again after the little

ones had left the boxes.


These small Parrots are very wild ; a pair of mine, which is

kept alone in a little aviary, is afraid of the least noise—the barking of

a dog, for instance—and hides in the nest-box as soon as anybody

approaches the cage. The two others are not so fearful, though timid.


My Mealy Rosellas reared four young, one of which was deformed

and died some days after leaving the nest.


The female Blue Budgerigar was too young to lay eggs this year.


I have never bred from my Red-collared Lorikeets ( Tricho -

glossus rubritorquatus). These birds always spend the night in a very

large box. Last May I saw them pairing (on the ground), but, though

during the whole summer they appeared to be on the point of nesting,

no eggs were laid. Like other Lorikeets every season they always seem

greatly attached to each other.


Two weeks ago I received another pair of this magnificent

species, bred in France by a bird-lover. The breeder wrote that they

remained sixty-seven days in the nesting-box, and were fed by their

parents chiefly on bread soaked in milk and a little ripe fruit.



BIRD LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA.


By Major F. W. H. Seppings.


I thought perhaps it might interest you to see how the preserva¬

tion of birds is treated in South Africa nowadays, so I am sending one

of the notices issued here which shows that the matter is regarded as of

“ a purely local nature ”.


It is nearly three years now since I came out here. I have been

in Pretoria, Cape Town, and Durban, but I have had very little time

to devote to birds,



