96 Mr. R. Suggitt,


P. luteus. On May the ioth I saw him making love to the one

which was building, and the next day I removed an egg from the

Hartz cage. On the 12th she had so fav finished the nest as to be

lining it with feathers. It contained another egg and I replaced

the one I had taken out. Four eggs were laid and then the pair

appeared to take no further interest in the nest, for I never saw

them go near it until May 25th, when I was surprised to see the

hen dart into the cage with a fly in her beak, and, on examining

the nest I found it contained at least one young bird.


I now had to face the difficulty of supplying this pair with

sufficient insect food to feed their brood, not an easy task where

upwards of a hundred other birds occupy the same enclosure.

However, at the risk of the hen deserting, I fixed a small

■dish about fifteen inches from the nest and some six inches

lower. To keep this supplied with mealworms, spiders, greenfly

and caterpillars called for considerable exertion ; these birds

absolutely refuse to touch wood-lice, gentles, or earwigs. Two

daj'S later the young hybrids' voices could be distinctly heard.


All went well for some days : the main duty of the Tree-

Sparrow appeared to be the defence of the food dish against all

coiners, which caused friction between his family and a pair of

Swaiuson's Sparrows, who had built a nest some six feet away,

and who no doubt thought they had a right to a share of the

tit-bits. The crisis came a few days later, but luckily I was on

hand and saw a pitched battle between the hen Yellow Sparrow

■and one of the Swainsous, while the other Swainson threw the

three youngsters out of the nest. All this occurred before I re-

covered from my astonishment. I rescued the young ones, one of

which had been carried some distance and deposited behind a

bush. Apparently they were little the worse for their adventure

when I put them back into the nest. The hen had lost a lot of

feathers and appeared to be damaged generally, but the Tree

Sparrow was absent during this disturbance— he had probably

been severely handled on some previous occasion.


After a great deal of trouble (for I never saw a more

■cunning bird) I recaptured the Swaiuson's. One of the hybrids

was nicely featheied, the other two being much more backward.


On June 3rd two heads could be seen at the entrance to



