THE



179



Avicultural Magazine,



BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. V. — No. 6. — All rights reserved. APRIL, 1914.



EGG-LAYING & NESTING EXPERIENCES.


By Dr. A. G. Butler.


If all the egg's produced in our cages and aviaries became

birds the market would soon be glutted ; but as it is many eggs are

infertile; and many others, though hatched, result in youngsters

which either die or are killed in infancy. The following is a summary

of my failures and successes to date : I do not include domesticated

Canaries, because everybody either has bred or could easily breed

more or less decent examples of these sports, and because our rules

exclude them, but hybrids between the Canary and any wild type

are admissable.


Beginning with the Thrush-like birds then, this is my modest

record :—


Merula boulboul x Merula merula bred 1895 and 1896.


Accentor modularis. An unpaired hen built and laid a full

clutch of eggs.


Sicilia sialis, one bird bred in 1890.


Saxicola monticola unpaired, lays every year.


Fringilla ccelebs x Serinus serinus var canaria infertile eggs.


Fringilla montifring ilia. A hen in one of my aviaries, un¬

paired, laid several bright green egg's.


Carduelis elegans, three in one nest reared and a second

sitting hatched in 1895. Of course I have also bred mules with the

Canary, the cock bird helping to rear the young', but then the birds

were not confined within the limits of a Canary breeding-cage, but

had a cage 18 inches cubic measure to themselves : in a confined



