8320 



Birds. 



casualties, open still in front, — in order not to give the air of confine- 

 ment to these freedom-loving birds, — and hung inside with branches 

 of the evergreen Conifers, to present somewhat of a natural and 

 homeish appearance. The next egg followed on the fourth day Rafter 

 the first one, namely, on the second day of the new year; the third on 

 the fifth day after that ; and then there was an addition every third 

 day, with perfect regularity} up to the thirteenth, which again took 

 four days, and the fourteenth six days. There was no difficulty in 

 inducing the laying bird to take to the new house. The same pre- 

 cautions were adopted as last season in removing the eggs as deposited, 

 during the severe weather, and replacing them by artificial ones. 

 Precisely at the same relative period as before, namely, after the laying 

 of the thirteenth egg, the other bird — whom we may now unhesitatingly 

 designate by his proper pronoun he — became increasingly busy about 

 the eggs, and began to show symptoms of making the same kind of 

 rude nest in the hollow provided, and finally settled on St. Valentine's 

 Day, the 14th of February, 1862. The eggs, as last year, had almost 

 regularly increased in size and weight from 1 lb. 2j oz. to 1 fb. 7 oz., 

 the average being considerably above the previous season. It was 

 thought best to keep back the four first, as the smallest and least to 

 be depended upon, and he was therefore set upon ten eggs, being 

 perhaps as many as was prudent. 



The next day I was favoured with a visit from Mr. A. D. Bartlett, 

 the prompt and energetic Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, 

 who had been duly informed, from time to time, of the progress of 

 events. He was pleased to approve of the arrangements entirely; but 

 thought the bird would cover the whole number of eggs, and that 

 therefore the four which had been kept back — and which I wished 

 him to take to experiment upon, but he declined, as they had no bird 

 then likely to adopt them, and he had no faith in the incubator — 

 might be safely added to the nest. I divided the matter, giving the 

 bird two more, quite sufficient, as it afterwards proved, and attempted 

 to hatch the other two by means of an impromptu incubator, which 1 

 need scarcely say failed entirely. 



We made several experiments to ascertain the heat generated by 

 the bird, with a very susceptible Nigretti and Zambra's thermometer 

 he had brought for the purpose, but probably from not giving time 

 enough, or the normal heat not being yet developed, did not obtain 

 up to quite 90° while the Superintendent was here. I pursued the 

 experiments afterwards with one of Casella's pretty little instruments 

 made for the purpose ; but the last time it was put under the bird for 



