44



Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



differences in the colour of the caps? It may be unlikely, but it

is not impossible. It is not quite to the point, but one cannot

help thinking of the red-brown cap of the female Blackcap and

of her young, the difference between the sexes being shewn in

the cap at a somewhat early age. My young Mesia was almost

certainly a male, and the colour on the wings developed steadily

as the feathers grew until a day or so before death, when

deterioration set in. When it left the nest, the nuchal collar

was not visible, but later it was very apparent —R. P.]



Supplementary.


The foregoing having been crowded out of the October

Number, I may as well complete the story of nest No. 5.


As already stated, the female commenced to sit on the

afternoon of September 8. On the 10th there was a terrible gale

with torrents of rain ; the foliage which protected the nest was

blown to ribbons, and a part of the aviary above the sitting-bird

was wrecked. If the sitting-bird kept to her nest all the night,

as presumably she did, she had the full force of the gale and the

rain right in her teeth, without any protection whatever. I11 the

morning, she looked very much washed out; but the two birds

went on with their duties as if a gale with bucketsful of rain was

quite too ordinary a matter to be worth talking about; neverthe¬

less the male seemed much concerned at the exposed state of

the nest. O11 the 14th, the sitting-bird came off for some wasp-

grubs, and I slipped round and found three eggs in the nest.

The male caught me, and came up with a loud and menacing

“quit, quit, quit.”


There was very little singing during this nesting-time,

probably owing to the cold and moult. They freely came off

the nest, too, when I approached the aviary, and cried out

loudly if I did not give them wasp-grubs—but my stock became

exhausted.


On the 22ud and following days they were feeding a young

bird, but not once from the crop that I could see. Why this

-change? Perhaps the moult had something to do with it! Or



