i86



Rev. Hubert D. Asteey,



brown plumage, with the wing-bars conspicuous, and his heart

still whole—for a friend always persists in calling them the

Broken-hearted Pigeons !


The Yellow African Singing Finches nested three times,

laying creamy white eggs ; but each time after they had nearly

sat out their time some other provoking bird destroyed the eggs.

The nest was built almost entirely of the soft hair of a biscuit-

coloured toy Pomeranian. When he was changing his coat in

the springtime there would be quite a handful after combing, and

this was eagerly seized on by the Singing Finches, who, having

carried up large beakfuls, padded it all down, by twisting round

and round, into a compact and warm nest of a Goldfinch type.


The Virginian Nightingales hatched out three nests of

three young ones in each ; and every time, when the 3 7 oung were

four or five days old, those wretched unknown robbers dragged

them out and killed them. I never could get my eye on the

culprits. It certainly was not the parents themselves, for I have

watched both of them feeding the young assiduously and with

parental pride, when I was close to them. At that time I had

not placed the covered shelters, with the partitions. The nests

were more in the open, in frameworks of wood covered with

branches of Mediterranean heath, and the frames suspended

from the roof of the aviary.


The Diamond Doves were most successful. From two

pairs there were about twenty young ones during the spring and

summer of 1904; to which I am all along referring.


Perhaps the most uncommon birds in this larger aviary

are the Blue-winged Grass Parrakeets (Neophema vemista). I

bought two pairs in Genoa as young birds ; one male was crippled

in one foot, and one died ; but the other pair is in beautiful

plumage and condition, and I do hope this couple will nest

successfully this season. They are quite sedate little Parrakeets,

and rather undemonstrative, but very pretty, and a hand-reared

one would (like the Turquoisine does) make a nice pet.


One pair of Pekin Robins built a nest in a large yellow

Marguerite daisy plant growing in the aviary, and the hen sat

well for ten days. Then, of cozirse ! on the eleventh morning the

nest was empt\q and no one knew anything about it. If the



