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Miss E. Alderson,



over with tiny white spots which show up very distinctly on a good

bird. The eye is bright ruby red, and the naked skin round is coral

pink, though the colour varies in different specimens. The beak is

olive brown, the legs and feet, flesh colour.


The above is the colouring of a cock bird, the hen may be

told by the white spots on the wings being fewer and larger—and

the general effect of her plumage is much more of a dun grey—not

nearly so blue a grey as the cock ; the eyes, too, are not such a

vivid shade of red.


I find it best to keep only one pair of nesting diamond doves

in each aviary. If you have more than one pair they do not seem

to rear so many young ones. I found they built their nests too near

together, and it ended in a general mix up, neither pair doing well.


I make little wicker baskets, about 4 inches across and rather

deeper than a saucer and tie them up among' the branches, putting

in a few short bits of heather and leaving more on the ground for

the birds to carry up. As a rule they lay two eggs, and bring up the

young ones, when they nest in one of the baskets, but sometimes

they are determined to make their own nest entirely themselves of

heather, fir needles, and hay, It is a far smaller structure than the

basket and generally I find only one young one is reared, sometimes

only one egg is laid, or again if there are two eggs only one is

hatched, somehow the birds seem to know that a nest of their own

making will only comfortably hold one healthy young bird. I have

almost given up expecting two where the nest is not in a basket.


Most of my nesting diamonds—I have six pairs—are steady

sitters, and do not go off when I go into the aviaries, but even then

it is as well not to go inside in a light dress (an old dark “ aviary

coat ” is a most useful possession) and to avoid seeming to look up

at the nest too much. Of course the fewer strangers that are brought

into the aviary during the nesting season the better, and yet how

many people think that any hour of the day, or time of the year,

they may “ see the birds.” I am turning hard hearted, but I will not

have children to see my pets in the nesting season, even though the

parents before hand tell me that it is to inculcate in their infant

minds a love of live things.


I had once a case where a very steady pair of bronzewings.



