I40


same shelf. In building, the plucky little woman, who seemed

fully to understand that her mate was bad — a state of affairs

which seldom fails to bring out the best qualities in the sex —

carried at first only dead leaves, chiefly ivy and euonymus, the

other available dead leaves being those of the rhododendrons,

which she would not touch ; she also took up straw and ha}^

finally lining the second nest with the finest ha}^ ; moss, hair,

etc., she would not look at. The foundations of the nests were

very large ; Robins' and Redstarts' nests are often built on the

same plan. In some respects, perhaps, it was more like to the

nest of the Nightingale than to that of any other British bird-

While all this was going on, the male looked on approvingly, sang

occasionally, and from time to time made miserable the lives of

an Australian Black-breasted Peewit, another very old friend who

still enjoys the best of health, and a common L,apwing, the only

other occupants of the aviary, who eventually had to be removed.

Judging from appeai'ances, for I kept away from the nest, the

first egg was laid on 6th June, 1893, and the female commenced

to sit on the 9th, on four eggs as transpired later.


On June 2otli I noticed the female fly across the aviary

from her nest with something in her bill ; the male immediately

darted at her and seized the " something," and a tug-of-war

ensued. This " something" turned out to be the first-born ; the

excited mother had by an accident carried out the nestling along

with the shell, and it was forthwith torn to pieces between the

two birds and, if I recollect rightly, devoured by them. Twice

again that day and once on the following morning did the female

fly across the aviary to the same spot bearing the discarded

shells. For the first few days the young were fed by the female,

later by the male also. Not only did the parents refuse to carry

artificial food of any kind to the young, but, as is too often the

case, they themselves wholly gave up eating artificial food ; and

this circumstance adds greatly to the difficulty of rearing a

brood of insectivorous birds. It is impossible for me to obtain

insects here in London, and the young Shamas were reared

on cockroaches, mealworms, and gentles. I tried to breed

"jumpers" in cheese, but they were not appreciated. The

gentles I discontinued after a time, as they seemed to be more

heating than the mealworms. At first small cockroaches were

taken to the nest from preference, but later the mealworms were

preferred. Unfortunately I could obtain but a very limited

supply of cockroaches, and had to rely mainly on mealworms.

The gentles and mealworms I placed in bran, in large open

saucers over a foot in diameter.



