Luck in Bird-Breeding.



267



Lieut. Horsbrugh in November 1906) carrying about a piece of

dead grass : I tore up some fibrous loam and threw the dry roots

into the aviary and the bird constructed a flimsy nest which she

failed to line although I gave her plenty of soft material which

she managed to waste, and when I put a lining into the nest she

pulled it all out. The nest, such as it was, was placed in a

sponge-basket hanging on the wires at the back of the aviary

and three eggs were deposited upon the wicker bars of the

basket, there being no bottom to the nest. One egg hatched

about thirteen days later, and as food for the young one I daily

put in a saucer containing some of the soft mixture prepared for

my Insectivorous birds; with this and a little cliickweed the

Canary fed the mother, who afterwards attended to the youngster.


On the 11 th June, in the aviary opposite, I saw a Chingolo

Song-Sparrow, sent to me by Mr. Teschemaker on October 30th,

1907, courting a hen Tree-Sparrow given to me by Mr. Allen

Silver about a year later. The two birds behaved in every respect

like a pair of House-Sparrows, which is rather remarkable if the

Song-Sparrows are actually Buntings, as Dr. Sharpe decided

that they were. Unfortunately Tree-Sparrows are so hopelessly

wild, even after years of captivity, that not the slightest attempt

was made even to collect materials for a nest, and if eggs were

laid no sign of their existence could be discovered.


On June 22nd the Canary hybrid left the nest in excellent

health and plumage; it much resembled its mother in general

appearance.


On June 26th the Seed-eater again began to carry about

building materials, and on the following day she began to line a

cocoauut-shell fixed on a dead fir-tree in the aviary ; as before

she proved a very poor architect and when she began to sit on

July 2nd there was hardly any building-material in the shell.


The eggs of this bird are pure white with a few small

blackish spots at the larger end ; they differ at a glance from

those of the Green Singing-finch which are cream-coloured,

broader, of a less true oval shape and rather more numerously

dotted with blackish : in fact (excepting that they are much

larger) they resemble those of the Grey Singing-finch, which

the St. Helena Seedeater also resembles in its less frequent and



