6638 



Birds. 



Warbling Parraquet (Melopsittacus undulatus) breeding in England. — In the first 

 place, the cage was a large, common breeding one, such as is used for canaries, with 

 boxes at the ends, which are entered by round holes, so as to form as nearly as possible 

 the hollow of a tree. I put into the cage several different kinds of materials, such as 

 moss, feathers, hair, dried grass, Sec , the same as we give other birds, hoping that 

 they would build with them ; this, however, they did not appear at all inclined to do, 

 but, on the contrary, tried hard to push out what little I had put into the boxes ; 

 therefore, finding the eggs were likely to get laid upon the bare boards, I took a pair 

 of scissors and cut up the above-mentioned materials quite fine, so that the birds 

 could not get them out; and this was all the nest they had. The first egg was laid 

 on the 1st of March, the second on the 3rd, and so on every other day until there were 

 four eggs. The hen began to sit when the second egg was laid, and eonlinued to do 

 so until the 18th of March, when the first bird came forth, and so on, in the same 

 succession in which the eggs were laid, until the four birds were hatched. I fed the 

 old ones entirely upon canarv-sced, as I had always done ; and all the young ones 

 appeared to grow and do extremely well till the 22nd of April, when one died, and 

 another on the next day. I am quite unable to account for this, as they had inva- 

 riably appeared so healthy up to that period; but I fancy they were seized with cramp 

 in their legs. The eggs were perfectly white, and about the size of a canary's. The 

 young are very much like the parent birds, but the plumage is not quite so bright at 

 present. The hen laid altogether nine eggs, in the same rotation as at first, but did 

 not sit again, and I am sorry to say died on the 19th of May. The two young ones 

 I have left are, I hope, a pair, and with their father are now in good health, and I 

 trust will continue so, and that I shall be more fortunate next year with them. — 

 Eliza Anne Eeles ; Southwold, July 1, 1859. {Communicated by John Curtis, Esq.~\ 

 Suggestion as to the Eggs mentioned by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson. — I do not for a 

 moment doubt that the eggs mentioned by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson (Zool. 6563) belong 

 either to a missel thrush or a blackbird. I have in my own collection, and have seen 

 in others, missel thrushes' eggs bearing a very close resemblance to strongly-marked 

 specimens of the ring ouzel's eggs ; and the situation mentioned is a very likely one 

 to have been chosen either by a blackbird or a missel thrush ; whtlst a ring ouzel, on 

 the other hand, would never have built in the fork of a stunted Scotch fir; and the 

 redwing also, as far as I can ascertain, never selects such a situation. The proba- 

 bility, however, seems to be that a blackbird was the real owner. The size of the eggs 

 might be caused by their being the produce of a young bird, and the trifling varia- 

 tion in the materials of the nest from those usually used, may, I fancy, be ascribed to 

 local causes. Mr. Atkinson has, I see, yet to learn to what an extraordinary and 

 puzzling degree the eggs of our common birds vary. I may mention here, for his 

 edification, that the eggs of the yellow bunting alone I have seen ascribed to no less 

 than five different species, and ail with a show of reason. — Henry Smurtliwaite ; 

 9, Bedford Row, Barnsbury Street, Islington, July 1 1, 1859. 



Singular Sparrow's TSest. — Last month our gardener showed me an egg which he 

 thought a house sparrow's, taken from a nest " queerly built." The egg was so very 

 light and simply marked, that he had misgivings. At once we proceeded to the tree 

 and visited the nest, which was undoubtedly " queerly built," being a kind of double 

 tenement. From it we took three more eggs, all very large, and much longer than 

 the one previously taken ; their colour was extremely dark. Evidently they were 

 deposited by a different sparrow. From the peculiar shape ol the nest 1 am inclined 



