THE JAVA SPARROW. 253 



as I could see, both parents seemed to be frequently flying about, and 

 I had no idea that the hen had again deposited eggs and incubated 

 them, when on the ist April I heard the strong voices of a second 

 family being fed ; these left the nest about twenty- four days old and 

 were attacked by the first family, which I had to remove to a cage. 



Meanwhile, the White Java Sparrows set to work, in earnest, to 

 build a better nest than they had ever previously constructed, and in 

 this four eggs were deposited ; the young bird, however, persisted in 

 entering the nest in spite of its parents; I, therefore, took it away, and 

 placed it in a breeding-cage with my young widowed Ribbon Finch, a 

 bird about eighteen months old. 



Later in the year, I again heard young birds in the Weaver- 

 aviary, caught my second family of five youngsters, and placed them 

 in a flight-cage with the first family. The third nestful consisted of 

 four, one of which died soon after it left the nest. After this the 

 parents seemed to be satisfied with what they had accomplished, and 

 (for the time) left off breeding. I, therefore, again thoroughly 

 cleansed their nest-box and replaced it. The White pair in the 

 breeding-cage did not attempt to breed a second time, and I eventually 

 turned them into the Weaver-aviary, and gave up their cage to a pair 

 of Sharp-tailed Finches. Later in the year, I turned the latter into 

 my outer aviary, and gave their cage to a pair of the young Java 

 Sparrows, whose heads were almost wholly white, and their general 

 colouring lighter than in the majority of their brethren. The young 

 hen began to lay towards the end of September, its age being probably 

 about eight months ; the first two clutches of eggs got broken, with 

 the exception of one which she covered up with nesting- material and 

 which hatched out, but was not reared. 



In October, the pair in the bird-room, again went to nest and, 

 about the i5th November, six strong young birds took wing, having 

 been brought up in a genuine cigar-box, in which they must have 

 felt somewhat cramped. These young birds I, very unwisely, left in 

 the bird-room with the parents, the consequence being that two nests 

 of young birds which flew in January 1895, were pecked, one by one, 

 as soon as they flew by these six little ruffians, their heads being 

 literally skinned.* 



* 1 saved only three out of seven. On March 28th, and two following days, four young left 

 the nest in one of my cages ; their parents being both grey birds reared in 1894, and in May I 

 reared seven more from two nests. Late in the year all my paired birds nested again, so that 

 (from first to last) I reared 21 birds in 1895, and in February 1896, young birds again began to 

 leave the nests in my bird-room. I reared altogether 21 that year, but only about half a dozen 

 in 1897. My old cock bird, curiously enough, lost his life in 1896, by getting hung up by the 

 claws in a furze-bush, a very unusual death for a Java-Sparrow. A.G.B. 



