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ants’ eggs, and a little Abrahams’ food; also once or twice a

week chopped raw beef, and each day part of an orange or a

few grapes; also cockroaches, and occasionally a mealworm

or two.


Whenever it gets hungry, this bird utters a harsh note

something like Werk, repeated with a short interval four or five

times ; then he begins a most irritating, rapidly-repeated, staccato

whistle. When happy, he sometimes sings a quaint, chattering

sort of song, which certainly has no claim to be called melodious.


Not being a song-bird, being intensely dirty, voracious,

and very fond of pulling out its perches and then hopping fran¬

tically from floor to wires, calling for them to be re-placed after

they have been coated with filth, I can hardly recommend this

as a pleasing cage-bird, moreover, in a small area it loses the

feathers from the flanks, and is never really presentable ; but, I

should think, if confined in a six foot flight, the Collared Jay-

Thrush might prove a rather interesting pet.


I have tried this bird with small mice, and he ate the first

one, holding it under his foot and tearing it to pieces, but he

would not touch another; I also gave him for some weeks,

chopped-up apple on the top of his soft food, but this and the egg

from his food is all thrown out and wasted ; yet, no doubt, he

would eat Sparrow’s eggs.



ODD NOTES ON MY BIRDS.


By D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S.


Our esteemed Editor has asked me to send him something

for the July number of the Magazine, as some expected con¬

tributions are not forthcoming. Perhaps a short account of the

doings of some of my birds, since the beginning of the year up

to the present time, may be of some slight interest to a few

members.


My Chinese Painted Quails have commenced breeding

decidedly early this year, and promise to add considerably to

the population of the aviary. I turned a pair into the outer part

of one of my aviaries, where there is plenty of cover in the form

of grass and shrubs, about the middle of April. On May 19th,

I noticed that for the first time the cock was alone and the hen

nowhere to be seen, so suspected a nest, which I soon discovered

under a tuft of coarse grass close to the aviary door. The clutch



