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Practical Bird - Keeping .



the end of October it was discovered that the old birds did no longer go into the

nesting box. The box was examined and five beautiful young birds were found

dead in it. They had their crops full of food so that it must have been the cold

that killed them. The feathers were just beginning to grow.


T. E. BLAAUW.


[An account of the successful breeding of Psephotus cucullatus has been

received from Mr. Hubert D. Astley, and will appear in our next number.— E d.] .



PRACTICAL BIRD-KEEPING.


XXI.—NOTES ON OUT-OF-THE-WAY BIRDS.


By Frank Finn, B.A., F.Z.S.


(Concluded from page 43).


From the point of view of a very large proportion of avicul-

turists who must perforce be content with small accommodation, the

most desirable group of the Picarians or non-passerine perchers is

the family of Humming-birds ; while hardly any family surpasses

them in intrinsic interest, owing to their tiny size in so many cases,

their frequently wmnderful colours, and their pre-eminent adaptation

to flight. This would at first seem to put them out of court for most

aviculturists, but the fact is, that their speciality in flight is rather

active evolutions in a small space than remaining long on the wing,

which they do not do, according to those who have observed them

wild. This facility in circumscribed flight could have been studied

with great advantage in the case of a pair of Prevost’s Hummer

{Lampornis prevosti), which, alone out of a consignment of eighteen

humming-birds of different species, succeeded in surviving a month

at the Zoo in 1908. The male, indeed, lived five weeks — I remember

this well, because I promised the keeper a shilling for every bird he

kept over the month, and much regretted I had only this individual

to pay for. He also grew a tail during his captivity here, showing

that he was not nearly “ on his last legs ” constitutionally. In fact,

as only three of this species were in the consignment it is pretty

obvious that Prevost’s Hummer is fairly hardy as Hummers go, and

I should recommend anyone who has access to Venezuela to



