3 r 4



Mr. R. Philupps,



male will fly about with hay in his bill, but it is the female who

does the work, which with me has always occupied her parts of

three days ; and she alone sits on the eggs and young—period of

incubation 13, 13^, and 14 days in three cases of which I have

notes. The eggs are greenish blue ; I have never seen a spotted

egg, but it is said that they sometimes occur ; the number is

usually given as 4 or 5, but I fancy that the former is the more

common, though I am by no means sure. Nest-building here

has generally commenced 011 April 26 or 27, when there has been

no disturbance nor undue access of cold weather.


I have had three nests of young, and I find that the treat¬

ment by different parents is not uniform on two important points,

although the circumstances in 1S99 a, 'd 1909 to all outward

appearances were identical. I11 1899, the female alone fed the

young for the first few days ; this year both fed from the very

first day. Again, in 1S99, although I watched the female closely

when she flew up to the nest and momentarily paused on a perch

outside, I could never detect the presence of food either in bill

or pouch, and I formed the conclusion that she fed from the crop.

This year, from the very first, both male and female carried the

food conspicuously in the bill. I expect that some of these

details depend upon the health, strength, and disposition of

individual birds, and that they are not stereotyped.


As I have already inferred, this species, for a soft-bill, is

an easy one to breed. Some one will doubtless say, “ Then why

didn’t you breed it sooner?” To this I make answer, “ Cats! ”

Although generally almost exceptionally sharp and intelligent,

in the matter of cats the Pied Rock-Thrush is an a—s—s ! The

aviary here takes in the entire garden so that I, in the garden,

am confined with the birds to the inside, and am unable to get at

the outside to put up defences. The cats climb on to the wire¬

netting roof from my neighbours’ trees, and all I can do is to

bombard them with stones, as stealthily as may be, from upper

windows of the house. Instinct teaches this bird the erroneous

doctrine that the cat will attack from the ground, so it nests and

roosts at the highest available spot; all of the nesting-boxes and

many high roosting-places are carefully protected and absolutely

safe. But the Rock-Thrush roosts in the open, barely a foot



