142 Mr. Reginald Phillipps,


again with me now and as vociferous as ever in the early

morning.


I fed my birds on lean, cooked and chopped meat, lettuce,

bread and milk, Quaker oats soaked in water, on locusts when

they were about, on chopped lizards (the tails were found most

acceptable) ; and once, when I was drowning some mice in the

Knorhaau run, the cock bird swallowed three little ones in

quick succession and seemed to appreciate them very much.


In a wild state I am certain that these birds, in common

with others of the same family, eat practically no grain at all,

but live on locusts, grasshoppers, etc., and on any odd insects

they come across.


I am told the Blue Kuorhaan are good eating, but having

the tame birds I could never bring myself to the idea of sampling

the wild ones.



FURTHER NOTES ON THE REGENT BIRD.


Sericulus ??ielt7ius.

By Reginald Phillipps.


In January, 1906, I gave an account of the hatching, in

my aviary, of two young of this species. The elder of the two

was hatched on August 6, 1905 ; and it is about this bird that I

now propose to say a few words.


During 1906, his health was perfect : and in the autumn

he went through a rapid and complete moult. Much of the past

winter he spent in the company of the odd female — referred to

in my former paper — whom he courted after the most approved

fashion of the Regent; for our winter, as I explained before, is

the natural breeding season of the species. A few days before

his death, his demonstrations of affection were very pronounced,

almost violent, and led up to and ended in a fit. When I

entered the birdroom on February 15, I found him in one of the

houses in a hopeless state, anxiously waited upon by his devoted

mother, who hovered near him during the whole day, not once

going into the garden ; he died during the ensuing night.


Last autumn, after the moult, the plumage became some-

what darker than it had hitherto been, the general colour being



