Notes ok my Birds.



H7



is pale grey at the tip. but scarlet near the face, and it is this

little bit of bright red against the blue cap that makes the bird

look so striking. I believe the two birds I have left are a true pair,

for one is larger and bolder looking than the other, but they are

so solemn and self-contained it is hard to say. One—the larger

one—coos, so he is evidently a cock bird, but the sex of the other

I cannot be quite certain of. I believe in Jamaica these birds

laid on the ground (they had been kept in an aviary) but with

me they have never laid at all. I have tried them now one or two

seasons with no success under different conditions, but I live in

hope I shall some day find out what they really want. Last

season I put them in a low duck house with a wire run in front

filled with long rank grass, and this I partially screened over to

give them a quiet corner in which I hoped they would nest.

Further, I put a sod of grass in the shut-off shelter in the duck

house. But all my hopes came to nothing, and I had the further

disappointment that in moving out the birds to their winter

quarter (for they are not quite hardy) I let one escape. It flew

right away with a strong and swift flight and I gave it up for

lost. I went down to the police station and saw about some

handbills offering a reward being got out, for once before I got a

lost bird back by advertising; and then I ran the remaining dove

into the wire-fronted duck house and having fastened it off, so

that it could not get out but would act as a decoy, I left the door

of the flight open and put a pot of food just inside. Next morn¬

ing the lost bird came back of its own accord, and it was so

hungry and so pleased to see its mate that it was easily captured

with some grain placed in a trap cage. I was very glad to get

the bird back for, apart from its rarity, it might have died of cold

or hunger or might have been shot, and I could not have easily

replaced it, and keeping an odd bird is not very satisfactory.


I11 the larger half of this heated aviary there is little, if any¬

thing of special interest to tell you of, save six Bleeding Heart

Pigeons. I have a great weakness for these quaint doves, with

their slate-grey bodies, the wings barred by a deeper shade, and

iridescent neck of purple opal, white breasts, and a bright red

blood splash in the centre that gives the bird its name. Bleeding

Hearts love each other’s society and the little flock of six keep



