358 Ccn?'espondence, Notes, etc.


lien bird I had to amputate the toe, the bird seemed as tame as

ever after the operation. This is the second summer I have had

these birds in the same aviary, but only during this season have

they showed any inclination to nest. They built a rather

elaborate nest with sticks and straw on a beam on a spot as high

from the ground as they could find, but after completion it was

usurped by a pair of Leptoptila Doves, so they had to commence

all over again ; the second time choosing an old hamper nailed

against the wall much lower down. Here, although much dis¬

turbed by other inmates of the aviary constantly alighting on

the edge of the hamper, they have reared one young bird, which

I believe is the first of the kind ever bred in Great Britain.

The little one has now left the nest and feeds himself: he is of

very dark plumage, the whole upper part being very dark brown,

the feathers edged with rufous, its legs are light red. The egg

left in the nest was partly hatched, and was of a fawnish colour,

not white like most dove’s eggs, but perhaps it may have become

darker by being sat upon so long. It very seldom uses its wings

but runs about like a young partridge; evidently these doves

belong to a strictly ground-loving species, and even the adults

seldom leave the floor of the aviary, so it seems strange that they

should choose so elevated a position for their nest.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



GOULDIAN-FINCHES AND EGG.


Sir,—O11 the 26th August my lien Chinese Quail laid a thin-slielled

blue egg upon the sand of my smaller outdoor aviary, and in the most sunny

part of it. My Gouldian-finclies which have a second nest of young ones

in the aviary (I fear the young of the previous nests have all died), broke a

hole in the top of the Quail’s egg, and I watched them for some minutes

eating the shell and sucking up the raw albumen, heedless of the spectre of

septicaemia with which our cage-birds have of late years been confronted.


It seems a strange thing, when one considers that the Gouldian-fiuch

never touches soft food, to find that even it cannot resist the delight in that

pabulum which we are expected to believe is so serious a menace to bird-

life, that none but an unreasoning ignoramus would dream of using it.

Alas ! I fear the wise are very few in number. A. G. Bul'r.iCR.



