On Zosterops going to Nest in Captivity.



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ZOSTEROPS GOING TO NEST IN CAPTIVITY.


By Emily E. West.


Perhaps some of the members of our Society may be

interested in the short history I propose to send to our Editor of

the sweetest and most interesting little birds I ever had the

pleasure of keeping.


It was in the month of August, 1903, I saw ‘Australian

Zosterops’ advertised in a very useful weekly paper, at what

seemed to me a ridiculously low price. I sent for a pair and

they promptly arrived— dead , to my sorrow and indignation.

They were poor miserable little bodies, nothing but skin and

bone and with hardly a feather on them ; they had no food

provided excepting white millet which was of course equivalent

to having none at all, but I fear they must have been dead when

packed. I wrote an indignant letter to the dealer and he returned

me my money, and there the matter ended for a time. Shortly

afterwards a local dealer, having heard my account of the birds,,

went up and bought a number of them and from him I procured

a very nice pair, comparatively. They were such dear confiding^

little creatures I fell in love with them, and it ended in my becom¬

ing the anxious possessor of eight of them. I could not tell the

difference in sex so did not know whether I had pairs or not.

All looked dirty and draggled and most of them were in very

bad plumage, or rather I should say in want of plumage, as their

little bodies were very bare. I expected most of them would

die before many days were over, but they all improved rapidly

and wonderfully on a diet of fruit and Abrahams’ food mixed

with cake or very finely ground bread-crumbs. It was a pretty

sight to see them all greedily attacking a banana, or sucking the

grapes I provided for them, and here I may note they do suck

the grapes. I sometimes fed one or two of the weaker birds

from my hand and could feel them sucking up the juice from my

fingers.


The Zosterops all seemed to like their new home—a large

flight cage—and were from the first perfectly confiding and

cheerful. Two were very weak but I kept them some months

before they died : they caught cold one very stormy night when



