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Mr. Bernard C. Thomasset,



“ There is,” adds this author, “ an exquisite purity in the

“ joyous carol of the Grosbeak ; his song tells of all the gladness of

“a May morning; I have heard few happier strains of bird music.”


Tins is the truth. The song of this bird somewhat resembles

that of the English Blackbird ; the Ouzel with its orange bill; but

I think the key is higher and the tone sharper and more soprano.

I do not mean to say it is superior, for to my mind the song of the

Blackbird is as beautiful a song as can be heard, and none is more

mellow, more sonorous. But that of the Bose-breasted Grosbeak is

very joyous, very uplifting. When I first heard it last year coming

from my aviaries, it was a still and sunny day in February, and

the notes rang out clearly and sharply in the crisp air.


Great favourites of mine are the Bose-breasted Grosbeaks,

difficult to obtain now in England, since their exportation is forbidden,

and wisely so, by the authorities in the United States.


In the autumn the plumage of the male is dulled, the brilliant

pointed patch of cardinal-rose on the upper breast fading almost

away, and the sharply defined black with the white markings being

suffused with brown, and broken. Tbe immature male resembles

the adult female, except that her under wing-coverts are orange , his

being rose-red.


The eggs of this species .90 x .69, are from three to five in

number, pale blue with numerous olive-brown or rufous-brown

markings.



AVIARY NOTES IN 1914.


By Bernard C. Thomasset.


My aviary was only built, or rather adapted, in 1913, for the

shelter sheds were then pig-sties. It is of modest size and is in

some ways only a make-shift structure.


It consists of two shelters each 10ft. x 8ft. each with a flight.

12ft. x 8ft. It faces south, backing on to a large farm building.

Unfortunately the shelters are rather low, only 8ft. high at the

back and 6ft. at the eaves.


Ashmansworth stands nearly 800 feet above the sea, on



