io2 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



Since losing "Jack", I have heard of Starlings having 

 bred in an aviary, and make no doubt that a tame 

 pair would do so and perhaps have an albino brood 

 which would be valuable, as these "sports" are readily 

 saleable at a remunerative figure, as much as 10, but 

 frequently 5 or 6, being paid for one of them. Albino 

 Starlings, Sparrows, and Blackbirds seem to have been 

 tolerably plentiful during the summer of 1893, and 

 their occurrence in more than the usual proportion 

 may have been due to the long continuance of abnor- 

 mally hot and dry weather that happened that year. 



"Jack" never disagreed or interfered with any of the 

 seed-eating birds that inhabited the aviary, but I could 

 not keep a soft-billed bird with her: she nearly killed 

 a Nightingale, and bullied a Thrush to such an extent 

 that had I not removed him, I feel sure he would have 

 been killed; of the Finches, Doves, and Parrakeets, 

 however, she never took the slightest notice, which I 

 fancy was due to their food being different from hers, 

 but she evidently looked upon the gentle-crock, the 

 mealworm tub, and the pot in which I kept the ants 7 

 eggs as her own especial property, and resented any 

 approach to them as an encroachment on her rights. 



The scientific name of the Starling is Sturnus vulgaris. 



