on the Breeding of the Black-cheeked Lovebird. 329


After peeping into the log, I replaced it, or tried to do so,,

exactly as it had been before; but some subtle instinct seems to

have warned the female that Peeping Tom had been prying, for,

with almost frantic energy, she recommenced carrying materials,

one of the objects being to stop up the side aperture, and thus,

according to her lights, absolutely conceal the nest—for what

creature in the whole wide world but a Lovebird, and that Love¬

bird a Nigrigenis , could possibly imagine that any ingress to a

nest could by any possibility be obtained by that tiny chink at

the top of the log, in that dark corner, so entirely hidden away

by the overhanging eaves of the “house” which she had with

such cunning and foresight selected as a cradle for her offspring!'

By the 26th, in addition to other important affairs of which I had

not the faintest suspicion, the work of building up the aperture

on the inside was completed ; and, as a display of triumphant

superiority and decorative ingenuity, the whole was finished off

by the fixing in the aperture the stalk end of a long and practi¬

cally untouched spray of millet, which was to be seen (for a few

days only, as other birds came to feed on the millet and dragged

down the spray) dangling down from the aperture outside, so-

that all the world and his wife might see that really there was

nothing there. At this time, the amount of stuff which was

carried from the garden to the birdroom by the female was quite

considerable ; on the 25th, she had hold of a curved stick nearly

as thick as my little finger and about a foot long which, owing to-

its bow-shape, gave her much trouble ; for some minutes she

strove with its contrariness in vain, dropping it more than once,

but, undaunted, she persevered and eventually succeeded in

carrying it to the birdroom : if that does not mean broken eggs,.

I thought, well — ! In all her work, the female was encouraged

and aided by the male, but chiefly out-of-doors, for the male

rarely went into the birdroom during the day.


(To be contimied].



