7



great spirit; the eggs were clear. She at once made another

nest in a box over the door; I let her sit her time, and on the

fifteenth daj^ (July 28th) took down the nest for the purpose of

throwing away the eggs, I was astonished to find two strong

young ones, these were reared, both birds feeding them, and on

August nth they left the nest ; one is now singing. They

look much like green Canaries of a bronze tint, one has white

feathers in the tail, shape and markings of wings and tails some¬

what like the White-throat, upper mandibles darker than lower,

legs and feet light horn colour. I suppose when they moult

their nest-feathers they may alter. The White-throat continued

to feed the young till they could feed themselves.


I have had little success this summer ; the intense heat,

tho’ suiting the birds well, seemed to dry up the eggs.


Cordon-bleus, a lovely pair, have nested three times : result

eggs only.


Silverbills (African) ditto, owing, I believe, to my having

kept the young of last year as well as their parents ; I have been

so successful with them hitherto.


Zebra-finches, for the same reason, have only reared some

half-dozen youngsters.


Bronze Mannikins, one young one died when a week old.


A Striated-finch mated with two Bengalese, a brown and

white and a fawn and white, all three incubated and fed the

young, there are seven of them. They are in build like the

Striated-finch but much lighter in colonr, some with light throats

and a few white marks.


The greatest disappointment I have had this year, was to

find a fine young Golden-breasted Waxbill dead in the nest.

On Thursday night it w r as strong and noisy, on Friday morning

early, I noticed the little parents in trouble, and on taking dowm

the nest box there was one dead bird and one egg, no doubt the

parents had been driven out of the nest in the night by mice and

the youngster died of cold ; its crop was full, flights half out of

their sheaths, eyes just open, breast-feathers showing. A

destroyed Zebra-finches’ nest with young thrown out, and a Grey

Waxbills’ nest with eggs containing young which had been

gnawed, told the same tale, also a hole in the border of earth in

which the shrubs are planted.


Among my most perfedt birds that have been out since

May, are Lavender-finches with coats like satin, Golden-breasted

Waxbills, Jacarini, Reddish, Guttural, Aurora, Cherry-finches

and a male African Fire-finch.



