on the Bleeding oj the Indian While-Eye. 115


occasions, they settled down at once, and were quite at home in

a few hours. They are fascinating little creatures in a large

flight ; their demeanour and general characteristics being similar

to those of the English Gold-crest. They are out of doors to-day

(Dec. 6th), and there were seven degrees of frost on the grass

this morning, and they were certainly the happiest inhabitants

of the aviary.


As regards diet, they take a little of everything that is

in the aviary, including seed ; but their main diet is milk-sop,,

ripe fruit, small insect prey and occasional mealworms. They

are on the forage from sunrise to sunset, and now the leaves have

fallen, they make a fascinating picture as they run up and down

—creeper-wise—the bark of elder and hazel bushes (stems two

to five inches in diameter) searching for prey. During last

summer they delighted in a spar with Willow Wrens and Chiff-

chaffs through the netting of the aviary.


The\' had been with me some weeks before I was able to

determine that they were a true pair ; then I caught them carrying

bents into the elder tree, but could trace no signs of the beginning

of a nest. I only got occasional glimpses of them at this period,

the cover being very dense. On June 27th last, I noticed one of

them fly out from the top of a hawthorn bush, and a dangling

thread of hay led to investigation, and I then found a cradle-like

nest slung on the underside of the branch, containing a clutch

of three pale bluish-white eggs. Considerable skill was displayed

in the choice of a nesting-site, as owing to leaves above the nest,

it was sheltered from rain and sun—not even after a heavy

thunderstorm have I found the nest wet. The birds—for both

shared the duties of incubation—sat very closely and did not

leave their eggs unless one approached within a foot of their

domicile and did not return till the intruder withdrew.


The nest was somewhat like its builders, apparently fragile,

but really strong, and when the young had flown it was as clean

and perfect as when first discovered, save that the edges had

been a little trodden down by the parent birds while feeding

their young. The nest, a suspended pocket or cradle, barely

two-and-a-half inches in diameter by two inches deep, was typical

in all but material, and being constructed of hay, lined internally



