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as big as a Sparrow-hawk’s, made of twigs. I can’t see if they

have eggs, as it is too high up.


I have a splendid pair of Pin-tailed Nonpareils and a cock:

Fire-finch in perfect health.


My Bengalese have nested as usual, I have a lot of them

now flying about. They are grand fliers.


My King and Queen went to nest about April, in a big.

log. They were very noisy at pairing time, especially in the

evening. The hen laid eggs about the size of a pigeon’s, but

much rounder. She sat a bit, but the moult came on and this

threw her off.


My Rosellas laid seven eggs, and would have hatched all

right ; but a heavy thunder-storm came on and the nest got wet,

and the eggs were addled. Only the hen sits, the cock simply

keeps guard outside.


My Redrumps laid very early in the season ; sharp frosts

about; but the hen suffered nothing. They hatched out three

youngsters, and all was going well when a storm came and

drowned them. They were fourteen days old, and beginning to

feather. Better luck next time !


The Turquoisines have not, so far, done anything, though

in perfect health and condition.



REVIEW.



Waxbills, Grass-finches, and Mannikins, by Horatio R. Fillmer.


(Betts of Sons, LimitedJ


This unpretending work contains a vast amouut of

practical information and advice, within a small space and for

a small price. It differs from other handbooks of the same sort,

in that its scope is limited to the three groups mentioned in

the title, and it systematically describes the general appearance,

and treatment in captivity, of every species in these groups

which is at all common in confinement. The author has, very

wisely as we think, confined himself in an avicultural work, to

aviculture : the reader will find no fearful and wonderful theories

on classification or scientific nomenclature, for the classification

and scientific names accepted by ornithologists are adopted

without criticism or comment. This is as it should be. The

information which the book contains is presented in a somewhat

condensed form ; the author has evidently been at pains to



