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On the Verditer Flycatcher.



I watched it enter a small cave formed by immense boulders of

rock. Although a diligent search was made, the situation of the

nest remained a secret. A subsequent visit, however, was

rewarded by the discovery of the nest—again of moss—in a

corner between two large rocks. The nest contained three or

four young birds, almost ready to fly. They were greenish grey,

spotted on the under surface witli fulvous.


I removed the nest from its resting-place and carried it

and its contents to my residence about a quarter of a mile away,

the parents following. Having placed the young birds in a cage

which was hung outside, I was gratified to see their parents

industriously feeding them through the wires. In order to

minimise the danger of molestation by enemies—feathered and

human—I carried the cage inside the house. But this did not in

the slightest affect the feeding of the young by their parents ;

and passers-by were astonished to see two beautiful blue birds

flying fearlessly in and out through the open window.


And now fora sad sequel to the story of my first Verditers.

Some naturalists assert that red and black are “warning”

colours, observed in poisonous and otherwise objectionable

insects. I noticed that the young Verditers were fed cjitirely

upon an insect about three-quarters of an inch long, stiiped with

black and flaming red. Always more food was brought than the

young birds ate ; and each evening I found about a dozen of

these red-aud-black insects on the bottom of the cage. After a

few days all the young Verditers died ! I do not go so far as to

say that they were deliberately poisoned by their parents—who

might, perhaps, have preferred death to imprisonment for their

offspring—but merely state the facts as they occurred. Perhaps

this hint at avian infanticide can be endorsed by some of our

members.


I understand that this paper is to accompany a coloured

plate in our Magazine ; so that a detailed description of the

species would be superfluous. It will suffice to say that the male

is of beautiful verditer blue, with a black eye-streak extending

to the beak. The female is of a duller colour than her mate, and

lacks the black eye-streak. Not having a specimen of the bird

by me, I make the following quotation from Oates’ Fauna of



