on the Pied Rock-Thrush.



3i3



Finches, but all were lifted, as I supposed at the time (so my

notes tell me) by some odd. Pied Rock-Thrushes. At page 327

of the number for last October, in a foot-note, I mention the

behaviour of my present female towards some nesting Cuba

Finches. She was not free from suspicion in two previous cases ;

but little by little I have cultivated her natural good manners and

hope that she is now fairly safe. Anyway this summer, while

she was herself nesting and her mate so alert, not six feet away

there was bred and successfully reared a little Waxbill, the first

of its kind ever bred in this country as I believe. So these Rock-

Thrushes are by no means a bad sort 011 the whole. Probably

she picked up her evil habits at the dealers’ before she came into

my hands. And so of the mouse-killing male referred to by Mr.

Meade-Waldo at page 189 of last year. When a dealer has a

mouse or a dead bird, it is usually chucked to some bird near by,

who thus learns bad ways. When one comes to think of it, this

craving is not unnatural. The bird, cut off from suitable food

and correctives, swallows these little extras as aids to digestion ;

like the captive Cuckoo, of which we read from time to time such

remarkable statements, advanced for the purpose of proving its

affinity with the hawk. A person who cannot tell a cuckoo from

a hawk, on the wing or otherwise, must be a gowk. But to the

Cuckoo in captivity as to the Pied Rock-Thrush, a baby canary

might often be of real benefit.


How some people do wander from the subject in hand ! I

can’t understand it.


This species is a very free wester in captivity ; and there

should not be any difficulty in successfully breeding it where the

aviary is sufficiently private and otherwise suitable, and when a

plentiful supply of insects can be obtained. If the nesting-box

be too exposed the female, at any rate with me, will either not

sit or will drop her eggs about anywhere, though even to this rule

there comes the exception, as will be seen by and by. With me,

the nest has invariably been built in some box fixed up as high

as possible, and has been constructed of hay (without mud), only

on one occasion rootlets having been added. If the receptacle

be large, or not correctly shaped, leaves or rubbish of any kind

may be carried to form a foundation for the nest proper. The



