on the Regent Bird.



95



following that on which the young had left. In one instance, a

day later, I saw her catch and swallow it. Now she never, as

far as I could see, fed the young on fruit. Did her instinct teach

her that fruit would be inconvenient, and, later, suffering as they

were, that it would be injurious? Since its recover. Baby has

been very fond of banana.


For the information of aviculturists, I may mention that

the breeding female, instead of making life unendurable for

other inmates of the aviary, for the most part treated them—not

being Regents—with indifference. She never liked the Mesias,

and, this year as last, persistently destroyed their nests; yet she

never touched the nest of a Blue-breasted Waxbill which was

built in the same thorn but a foot distant from those of the

Mesias. The tiny Cuba Finches, Phonipara canora , having

reared one young bird, took it into their heads to build a second

nest in an extra large box which needed a great deal of filling.

This box was fixed up tinder the roof of the aviary ; and ever} 1,

time, that is times without number, either of the birds carried

up say a piece of hay, it had to perch for a moment on the long

pole which ran near to the Regent’s nest. This irritated the

Regent and she would come out, snatch the hay from the Cuba’s

bill, and throw it away in a regular pet. But she soon cooled

down, and the plucky Cubas, who were never discouraged,

brought off a brood of no less than three, an unusual number for

this cold country. The pert little Blue Wren which was bred

here in 1902, and figured with his parents in November of that

year, was wholly unmolested, notwithstanding that, true to his

character of “Impudence” (in the Sydney coloured illustration

of “Dignity and Impudence”—the Laughing Jackass and the

Blue Wren) he rarely failed to hop round the Regent when

cockroaches were put out. The female White-eared Grassfiuch,

figured August, 1898, and various other helpless tots, were never

injured nor interfered with. On the other hand, various birds

had to be removed, not solely on account of temper but also

owing to their assertive dispositions when cockroaches appeared.

Amongst these were the White-throated Ground-Thrush (April,

1904), the Black-lieaded Sibia (June, 1903), the Rufous-chinned

Laughing-Thrush (Trochalopterum rufigtilare), and the like.



