THE



15



Hvicultural flfoac$a3tne t


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICUIlTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series. —VOL. I.-NO. All rights reserved. NOV., 1902.



THE BLUE WREN.


Malurus cyaneus.


By Reginald Phieeipps.


(Continued, from p. 249 of Vol. VIII.)


It is probable that this species has not previously bred in

this country ; so far as I know, this is the first year that the

living bird has found its way to these Islands. I will, therefore,

just add a word or two to what has already appeared.


Those who are accustomed to birds and their ways will

have observed, when they read my supplementary remarks on

p. 248 of our last volume, that coming changes had already cast

their shadows beforehand over my little Blue Wrens,—though at

the time I did not realize the full significance of the words I

committed to paper. I vaguely referred to the unrest of the

male, and to the circumstance that, when I peeped into the

aviary to see how the young bird was getting on, I found it

sitting side by side with its mother. This was the first occasion

on which I had seen these two sitting quietly together by them¬

selves. From that time these two, and these two only, were

inseparable, hunting, feeding, and cuddling together, for they

had been absolutely deserted by the male. The latter now

seemed to have but one thought, how to get out of the aviary

and be off and away.


Whence this sudden change ! The bird whose chief

thought had seemed to be the protection of his fragile little

child had now ceased to think of it, and ignored its existence.

And whither did he want to be off and away to ? Had he a

touch of migratory fever? or was the old villain thinking of a


B



