34i



Cor?esponde?ice, Notes, etc.



BREEDING PILEATED-FINCHES.


Mrs. Howard Williams writes to say that she has been successful in

breeding Pileated-Finches in an outdoor aviary. It is to be hoped that she

will give us a full account of this interesting experience for the

instruction and encouragement of our members.


In his “ Handbuch fiir Vogelliebhaber,” the late Dr. Russ says of

this species—“ With Dr. Frankeu a pair proceeded as far as eggs, but not

young. Hitherto it is not yet bred.” A. G. BuTDER.



THRUSH NESTING IN CONFINEMENT.


Our Editor sends me the following cutting from The Field, of July

29 th, last:—“A pair of young Thrushes having been caught last summer

under some strawberry netting at Preston, near Brighton, were turned into

an aviary belonging to Mr. George .Short, of the Crown and Anchor. This

summer they made a nest in the aviary, in which three eggs were laid, one

of which has been hatched. The fact of Thrushes rearing their young in

captivity is sufficiently unusual to deserve notice.—A.R.”


As a matter of fact there is nothing very startling in this fact when

we remember that a man who used to exhibit regularly in the British

Classes at the Crystal Palace, bred all his Thrushes in a cage about the size

of a rabbit-hutch. A. G. B., Ed. pro. tem.



HYBRID CONURES.


The following interesting note reached me at the end of July:—


Sir, —Would you kindly inform me whether there is anything

uncommon in a cross between the Yellow-crowned Connre and the Brown-

throated Conure. I have one of each of these birds in my aviary, and about

the middle of May found the Golden-crown sitting on four eggs in an old

box that was hanging on the wall. On the 4 th June the first bird was

hatched, and a day or two after two more. When three weeks old one fell

out of the box and was killed : the two others left the nest on the 24 th and

26 th of this month and are now flying about the aviary with their parents :

they are fine large birds with the golden front of the mother and brown

throat of the father; one has a white ring round the eyes, and the other

the same but speckled with yellow ; the rest of the plumage seems a

mixture of the various shades of green and blue of both parents.


They were brought up on the ordinary seeds in the aviary, viz.,

canary and oats, and every day a pan of fresh bread and milk was put in

the aviary. L. Sturton-Johnson.



MUSKY LORIKEETS.


Sir, —I must thank you very much for your identification of my

“ Keith’s ” Parrakeets. I have since received the book “ Parrakeets,” and my

birds certainly are Musky Lorikeets, and I am not too well pleased with my



