34



Dr. Maurice Amsler,



Hen is completing nest in canary cage.


Has been sitting' for twelve days on one egg.


Egg removed “ clear.”


Has laid again, one egg only.


Chick hatched, flesh colour, white down.


Feather tracts on wing and back visible.


Chick well developed, taken from nest to he hand-

reared : parents quite placid.


Young robin well-grown handsome bird, dark brown

back, orange brown breast with numerous and regu¬

larly arranged dark brown spots.


At or about this date I returned him to his native aviary, but

had to take him indoors next day, for I found the poor fellow raw

and bleeding, having been nearly scalped, by his parents I suspect.

The old birds had had enough for one year and spent an uneventful

winter out of doors.


On May 3rd of this year they again built in the same canary

cage, three eggs being laid on the 11th, 12th and 13th ; these all

hatched out on 24th and 25th, the hen only sitting and the cock

perching in a apple tree outside and singing lustily, especially in the

early morning and during wet weather : the song is much like that

of a blackbird—flute-like and mellow.


On the 26th, one of the young was picked up on the ground

below the nest and replaced, on the following day he was picked up

dead. The male bird was an exemplary parent and did more feeding

than the hen. Both birds were wonderfully tame and I unwisely

decided to repeat my experiment of last year when I let some tits

out of their aviary for the purpose of foraging for their young.


I have already mentioned that the birds in question had

built in the shelter-house of their aviary; no other birds had at

that time a nest in the shelter, so I was able to drive the rest of the

occupants to the outer flight where they were shut out. The shelter

is entered from the garden by a door which opens into a small lobby.

The first step was to encourage the parents to come out into this

lobby: this was quickly done by putting the live bait in the lobby

and keeping the door into the garden closed. I next opened the

garden door also, the cock bird who was then doing most of the feeding



June 15th.

July 5th.

,, 12th.

,, 18th.

„ 30th.

Aug. 3rd.

,, 9th.


Sept. 23rd.



