On the Bearded Tits in Confinement. 149


I do not know of any previous instance of this species

having been brought alive to this country, but Mr. Frank Finn

tells me that he has seen living examples on two occasions in

Calcutta. D. S.-S.]



BEARDED TITS IN CONFINEMENT.


By W. H. St. Ouintin, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


I have found this delightful little bird subject to fits in a

cage ; but hardy, and quite satisfactory, in a cool aviary. Mine

share an aviary with some Waxwings. It has a covered wooden

shed at the back, and one side is boarded up. The other side

and the front are open. The roof in front of the shed is glazed,

to ensure a dry floor for the Pintailed Saudgrouse and Painted

Quails which are also kept here. For some reasons this is

undesirable (turf will not long keep fresh in summer), but on the

other hand it gives some protection against the Tawny Owls

which are sometimes troublesome at this particular aviary.


My birds have a small tin of maw-seed to themselves ;

and they take what ants’ eggs and egg yolk they like from the

Waxwings’ food pan.


For three consecutive seasons a female has nested; and

in 1903 she hatched young, but the latter soon died. Bast spring

her mate was killed through the wire netting by an Owl; and it

was some time before I could replace him, and then with a bird

which arrived in very light condition. However he soon picked

up and an old Missel-Thrush’s nest fixed in a spruce-fir for the

Waxwings, was lined and adapted, and a clutch of eggs laid.


A single young bird left the nest (there were three at first,

but for fear of disturbing the Waxwings I dare not visit the nest

•often, and I do not know what became of the others). It was

clever at climbing about in the spruce branches, and often

returned to sit in the nest. For several days the parents continued

to brood and feed the young one, which had left the nest before the

flight feathers were full-grown. However it became able to flutter

a few feet, and I thought all was going prosperously, when un¬

luckily a pair of Waxwings, which had lined another nest in a



