30



On Breeding Bathilda Ruficauda.



writes me that the Zoological Society has not yet succeeded in

producing any young Chingolos.


P.S.—I see in Dr. Butler’s most excellent Handbook on

“ Foreign Bird Keeping ” the statement that “ the nest is built

in a depression on the earth : very rarel}’ in a bush or on a

stump.” The four nests built in my aviaries (and the hen is now

building a fifth) have all been placed in shrubs about four feet

from the ground.


P.S.—Oct. 22. After the fifth nest had been removed this

hen constructed a sixth at the very highest point in the enclosure,

7ft. 6iu. from the ground, and again laid three eggs.



ON BREEDING BATHILDA RUFICAUDA.


By Joan Gladstone.


I was away from home when the nest was started, and also

after September 4th, so cannot say very much about the progress

of the building. The cock had been carrying hay about for some

time. A small portion of an ant-hill was put in the aviary every

day, but latterly there have not been many ants’ cocoons in the

heap, so that the birds must have either eaten the ants or the

other insects found in the earth.


The parent birds have been in my possession two years and

have wintered out-of-doors.


August 13th. Rufous-tails in out-door aviary reported as

sitting on three eggs ; certainly four or five laid, as ascertained

later.


August 19th. One chick hatched.


August 27th (or about that date) two chicks ; two eggs

dropped through the very loosely woven hay of the nest, which

was shaped rather like an egg standing on its small end, with the

opening high up on one side facing S.W. It was made of coarse

hay, lined with moulted Canary feathers and firmly fixed to a big

Mediterranean heath bush about 4ft. 6in. from the ground.

Chicks had dark grey down, with black and white speckles on

the wing-feathers.


August 31st. Chicks partly feathered, still dark grey with



