071 the Regent Bird. 63


three love-parlours in different spots in her endeavours to bring

back to his allegiance the fickle male.


If there is a superabundance of females, or if the species

be polygamous, these endeavours on the part of the females to

entice the males may be readily understood.


During the summer of 1904, in spite of every encourage¬

ment on my part, neither female would nest, and for a time I

concluded they must be males; later in the year, as already

mentioned, they became very enthusiastic over their love-par¬

lours—they were completely fogged as regards the seasons.

When they constructed their love-bowers, and extended to their

particular male the invitation “ Will you walk into my parlour

they were under the impression that it was a case of—


“. . . . the winter is past,


The rain is over and gone;


The flowers appear on the earth ;


The time of the singing of birds is come,


And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”


The increasing cold of our approaching winter disillusioned them ;

but at any rate the one wise bird treated that simply as a dis¬

agreeable episode which compelled a temporary cessation of

castle-building; and, after an unsatisfactory trial in December,

she picked up the thread and went on from where she had

dropped it the previous autumn.


It may be gathered from the foregoing that 1113^ flock of

Regents this summer consisted of an old male and two younger

females. The one female was a large sedate bird, the other a

smaller and very flighty creature ; and it was to the latter that

the male paid suit this spring, and accordingly it was with the

latter that I shut up the.male in the private well wooded aviary

which is reserved every summer for the breeding and other

special birds. But the course of love, true or otherwise, does not

always run smoothly even in a reserved aviary, especially when

one tries to breed several species together ; and this summer the

even tenor of the Regents’ way was disturbed in an alarming

almost tragic manner, exemplifying vividly the difficulties

under which the aviculturist labours who has but limited

accommodation.


For some years I have had two male Long-tailed Whydahs,



