fill 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



pair busily employed in constructing their nest in a tree 

 close to the door of the Colonial Secretary's Office. The 

 -short and rounded wing incapacitates it for protracted 

 night, but the amazing facility with which it passes 

 over the surface of the ground fully compensates for this 

 deficiency ; its mode of progression can scarcely be called 

 running, it is rather a succession of bounding hops, per- 

 .f ormed with great rapidity ; while thus employed its tail 

 is carried perpendicularly, or thrown forward over the 

 back ; indeed, the tail is rarely, if ever, carried hor'.- 

 :zontally. 



"The breeding-season continues from September to 

 January, during which period two, if not three, broods 

 are reared, the young of one being scarcely old enough 

 to provide for themselves before the female again com- 

 mences laying. Independently of rearing her own young, 

 she is also the foster-parent of the Bronze Cuckoo 

 (Chrysococcyx lucidus), a single egg of which species is 

 frequently found deposited in her nest ; but by what 

 means, is .... unknown. 



" The nest, which is dome-shaped, with a small hole 

 at the side for an entrance, is generally constructed of 

 grasses, lined with feathers or hair. The site chosen 

 tor its erection is usually near the ground, in a secluded 

 bush or tuft of grass. The eggs are generally four in 

 number, of a delicate flesh-white, sprinkled with spots 

 and blotches of reddish-brown, which are more abundant 

 and form, an irregular zone at the larger extremity ; 

 they are eight lines long by five and a half broad. Tha 

 song is a hurried strain, somewhat resembling that of 

 the Wren of Europe." " Handb. Birds Austral.," 

 Vol. I., pp. 318-20. 



Campbell ("Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," 

 pp. 163-168) shows that some of Gould's observations 

 renuire modification. He thus describes the nest: 

 "" Globular, side-top entrance ; usually composed of old 

 :greyish weather-beaten grasses with an admixture of 

 cocoons : lined inside with fine yellowish-coloured grass 

 and finally with feathers, hair, down, seed-vessels, etc." 

 He gives the number of eggs in a clutch as " three to 

 four, occasionally five." 



Furthermore he observes that " while the male Wrens 

 do change their dress," they do not " retain it for a 

 short period," but 'for eight or nine months of the year, 

 or excepting the moulting season. He also quotes Mr. 

 Holroyd's opinion that this species is a polygamist and 

 lias from two to four wives. 



Mr. Reginald Phillipps, who secured a male and two 

 females of this charming species in 1902 from a con- 

 signment which reached this country in May, was suc- 

 cessful in breeding the species in his garden aviary, 

 where I had the great pleasure of seeing them flying 

 about. From the manner in which the unpaired female 

 was persecuted by the pair which bred he was inclined 

 to discredit the idea of polygamy in this species. He 

 describes the song as rippling twittering and insignifi- 

 cant, but bearing a family resemblance to that of our 

 Wren. 



"They are very sensitive to cold; their delight when 

 the sun shines into their cage is unbounded. 



"They seem to be wholly insectivorous." 



A charming plate illustrates Mr. Phillipps' second 

 paper upon this species, in which the irides are coloured 

 yellow, which seems again to put the late Mr. Mould in 

 the wrong, or is this an artistic licence, like the cater- 

 pillar in the picture? (vide T'li- Avicultural Magazine, 

 N.S., Vol. I., pp. 15-19). 



I presume that, in captivity, Blue Wrens would pick 

 out tiny fragments of egg, ants' -eggs, and dried flies 

 from the usual soft-food mixture ; but in an outdoor 

 aviary like that in which Mr. Phillipps bred the species, 



doubtless numerous living insects could be captured by 

 the birds. 



In addition to the Blue Wren there is another lovely 

 Flycatcher which has of late years appeared more than 

 once at our bird shows, and therefore must not be 

 ignored : 



RUFOTJS-BELLIED XiLTAVA (XHtaua sundara). 



Forehead, entire side of hsad, and throat black ; the 

 latter edged at side with blue continuous with that of 

 the nape, the whole crown and nape being glistening 

 bright blue ; upper back black, as well as the inner 

 webs of the wing and tail-feathers ; otherwise both 

 wings and tail are blue ; breast, abdomen, and under 

 tail-coverts bright rusty orange, slightly paler on the 

 latter; bill black; feet flesh-brownish; irides dark 

 brown. Female : Above olivaceous brown ; wings 

 dusky, edged with rust-red ; tail rust-red ; below ashy- 

 brown ; a white crescentic bib across front of breast, 

 the points of which join a narrow lavender-blue streak 

 edging the side of neck. Hab., Himalayas, Arrukan, 

 Tenasserim, and Western China. 



Jerdon says of this species: "It is very common 

 about Darjeeling, from 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet. It fre- 

 quents thick, bushy ground, often near water, is shy 

 and wary, seldom showing itself, but now and then 

 I have seen it seated on a fallen tree or stump, or even 

 a paling by the wayside. It feeds chiefly on insects, 

 which it procures on the ground, generally returning 

 to the same perch whence it came, but it also picks 

 insects off the leaves and branches. It is seldom seen high 

 \;p on trees. Hodgson says that it sometimes eats 

 berries and seeds in winter. I several times procured 

 the nest of this bird, situated on a bank, or in the 

 cleft of a rock, or against the fallen stump of a tree. 

 It is loosely made of moss, lined with a few black 

 fibres : and the eggs, three or four in number, are 

 reddish-white, with the large end nearly covered with 

 minute brick-red spots, forming a large patch of dull 

 brick-red. The eggs are remarkably long-shaped. 



''The song is said to be one loud and simple note, 

 frequently repeated. I have not heard it that I am 

 aware of, and always considered it a very silent bird." 

 " Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 474. 



From Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 

 2nd ed., Vol. II.. p. 20, I quote the following :" The 

 Rufous-bellied Niltava breeds everywhere in the Hima- 

 layas, at any rate, from Darjeeling to the valley of 

 the Beas (I have no record of its breeding further west). 

 from the middle of April to the middle of May. It 

 places its nest in some rocky ledge or crevice, or in 

 or about some decayed stump or fallen trunk. 



" A nest of this species, which I took near Kote- 

 gurh on May 15th was a mere pad of mass about 

 5 inches in diameter and 1^ inches in thickness, with 

 a very broad, shallow depression in the centre. In and 

 about the inner surface of this depression a certain 

 amount of very fine silky fur and one or two do \\ny 

 feathers were interwoven, making a kind of lining. The 

 nest was placed in a hollow at the base of an aged oak. 

 Four is 1 , I believe, the normal number of the e^gs." 



In Tlf Aririitturcil Mct/fuz'tni', N.S.. Vol. L. pp. 24- 

 26, Mr. Russell Humphreys gave an account of a male 

 of this species in his po.ssission. which appears to 

 have been hr:)ii_ht home by Mr. E. W. Haider. 

 Ac'-oiVnYig to this gentleman, the son", so far as could 

 be judged by its recording, resembled the warble of 

 the male Red-backed Shrike, and some of the calls 

 those of the English Robin. An excellent coloured 

 plate of both sexes appeared in the succeeding volume. 



Mr. Pewhiirst ha.s exhibited this specie? at the 

 Crystal Palace, and it appears not to be the same speci- 



