On Breeding Hybrid Ouzels.



301



to a clutch, the normal clutch of Turnix is four only ; and it

must also be borne in mind that all of the small ground birds

form the natural prey of numerous predatory birds and mammals,

hence were it not for some means of rapid propagation these

defenceless creatures would be in danger of extermination.



ON BREEDING HYBRID OUZELS.


By Arthur G. Butter, Ph.D., F.T.S., F.Z.S., &c.


In my paper on the Grey-winged Ouzel in the June

number of the Magazine, after mentioning the fact that the hen

Blackbird, paired up with my male, had up to that time shown

no inclination to build, I stated that I did not yet despair.


About the second week of June I noticed that Merulcc

boulboul frequently pursued the hen, but I never observed either

bird carrying about building-material: after a heavy thunder¬

storm I scraped the mud, mixed with dead leaves and twigs,

from the paths, and laid it in a heap under one of the trees in

the aviary; and it is evident that this was found useful by the

lien.


There can be little doubt that somewhere about the 10th

or nth of the month the Blackbird must have begun to build,

although I was profoundly ignorant of the fact: having all

materials handy, she would easily be able to complete a nest in

two days (I have knowm a Blackbird to finish its nest in a single

day under favourable circumstances, and I have known it to take

a week in the operation) ; but, as a general rule, nests built in my

garden have been completed in from two to three days.


I had seen but little of the hen for about a fortnight; but

this had not surprised me, as she is considerably more nervous

than her mate, skulking a good deal at the back of a platform of

branches placed high up at the hinder end of the aviary : it was

therefore with no little pleasure that I caught sight of her on

June 29th sitting in a nest built on one of the cross-bars of the

aviary just on a level with the above-mentioned platform. A

later examination of the nest showed that it was formed of hay

and twigs compacted with the mixture of mud and dead leaves

previously referred to, and lined with finer hay : being built on a



