254



Correspondence , Notes, etc.



the new feathers had grown and the weather had become more favourable

for putting it into the aviary. On the 30th April it was dead, having in the

meantime lost every body feather.


Ou the 4th Ma}' instant I received auother from the same dealer, also

in good plumage and looking bright, except that it displayed a disposition

to “hide its head under its wing” like the Robin in the nursery song. I

determined to keep this one at home under my own eye. I drew out the

stump quills from the wing, which seemed to cause very little pain, put the

bird into a roomy box cage an^. kept it in our sitting-room, where we have

kept a Grey-headed Love-bird in perfect health for a year. I fed it on

white millet, spray millet, and canary seed, the last being well and freely

eaten. On the morning of the Sth I noticed the bird rolling and shivering,

in the afternoon it began with convulsions, in the evening it died

after much struggling and beating of the wings. This is not my first

experience of the kind with these birds, and I am almost afraid to buy

them, though they are very attractive birds when once established.


Chas. L. Rothera.


[The late Mr. Abrahams once told me that the only way to remove

the stumps of the quills without injuring the bird was to take out not more

than one or two at a time, repeating the operation about once a week until

all were removed. Red-faced Love-birds, although they have been known

to aviculturists from a very remote period, are by no means fully under¬

stood, and we should welcome a discussion of their treatment in this

journal.—E d.]



BIRDS OF CUBA AND JAMAICA.


Sir,—I promised to send you a few notes ou Cuban birds, but the

notes on Cuban birds will be scanty this time, as I have only spent seven¬

teen days in Cuba (Province of Santiago de Cuba), and again, Cuban birds

are very scarce or perhaps shy. The only Cuban birds I have seen wild are

the Cuban Nightingale—a species of Mocking Bird often kept in cages In

the Cuban towns—the Nonpareil, Indigo, also a bird about the shape and

size of a Java Sparrow—a fine blue-black with a white spot on throat, the

Olive-tliroated Finch, and a bird shaped like a Sugar Bird, though double

the size, plumage dark green, bill black, long and curved.


My observations 011 Jamaican birds are a little more extended. Up in

the Blue Mountains I heard Parrots, but did not see them. I also saw a

very tiny Humming Bird with a dark green back, head, and wings, and a

pale yellowish green underneath. This species seems peculiar to the

higher parts of Jamaica. I have also seen it in the Clarendon Hills, Santa

Cruce Mountains, and Mocha Mountains, they are abundant from Catadupa

down to Porus. Native Canaries are also common in the higher parts of the

country : this bird is a Quit I fancy, a bright greenish yellow, rather darker



