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Dr. Maurice Amsler,



to inspect the goings on whenever I so pleased. It was this very

inspection which upset the apple cart.


Before the birds had been with me many days I noticed the

cock bird feeding the hen with any tit bits he could find, and I made

notes of their favourite foods as a possible help in feeding young

should any be hatched.


On June 2nd I found some twigs of privet, which the birds

had pulled off a bush, laid at the bottom of my nest; in the mean¬

time, Mr. B. T. Stewart, their late owner, had sent me a basket in

which the birds had laid when in his possession, this I had hung up

securely at the back of the shelter 5 feet from the ground.


No more building took place for a few days and I began to

think that the birds would go no further, what really happened was

that they had noticed my inquisitiveness and had transferred their

choice to the basket in the more secluded position. Here I dis¬

covered that a foundation of thick sticks had been laid, mostly

lying in one direction. Above these they placed a quantity of twigs

of the yellow broom which I had provided ; these were laid very

cleverly in a circular arrangement, forming a solid cup which was

finally lined with a few pieces of hay and cocoanut fibre.


While the building was proceeding the hen spent her nights

in the nest, the cock roosting close by. On June 10th and 11th two

eggs were laid, the third and last being'laid on the night of the 14th.

The blue pie’s egg is about the size and shape of a domestic pigeon’s,

the ground colour is stone grey with a slight tinge of green ; the

whole profusely spotted with chocolate brown, especially at the

broad end where the spots become confluent. I really believe that

the clutch should have consisted of five eggs, as it frequently does in

the wild state, but that something went wrong with the hen’s

internal economy. Incubation began on the 13th, but for the first

few days the female was terribly unsteady.


This aviary is situated behind a greenhouse, the glass of

which was “ shaded,” so that it was practically impossible for the

birds to see inside the greenhouse. Periodically I would tip-toe to

a certain peep-hole in the glass invariably to find the hen off,

or just in the act of leaving her nest. Things did not improve much

during the whole period of incubation, but on June 29th I suspected



