180 
Br red hi () Results at Pari' Lodge Aviaries. 
1 did )iot particularly notice the incubation period, 
but I believe it to be ten days. The callow young are quite 
pale with a little bit of down on, at any rate very soon after 
their advent. Cordon Bleu.s desert very easily, at least most 
{)air.s do, and will stand no interference. This is true of them 
at all stages of rearing young until they have left the nest. 
I have no doubt they are reared largely on live -food, but 
although I bred several broods, I jicver once detected the old 
birds taking live food to them. I jiuspect the live food is mixed 
in the parent's crops with the seed and the young have to put 
up with it as thin, sticky kind of pap. In about fourteen 
days the young have feathered and then think about having a 
look round. When they do, they fly hclter skelter, in all direc- 
tions, and if there is a niousehole will somehow contrive to not 
only find it but to get down it too. Now, mouseholes have no 
business in an aviary — mice are not uncatchable. I was 
over-run with them in one aviary ,and I have nearly extermin- 
ated them. At any rate I caught nearly 250 last winter. I 
now use the ordinary break-back trap and bait them with 
cheese. I put them in the " runs " ,and cover them with a 
box, having cut oil' half-an-hich from two opposite ends. Thi'j 
allows the mice to run freely underneath, but no bird will at- 
tempt it. Mice will get into the aviary and can't get out, so you 
must catch them, and catch them you must and can. But to re- 
tui-n 10 my young Cordon Bleus, the parents find them out and in 
a day or two you may find them sitting quite sociably all 
together, or they may even return to the nest again. I have 
found this a common occurrence with all Waxbills. With 
baby birds, it has always struck me as being rather clever, one 
expects the grown-ups to, but not the babies. Once out of the 
nest time quickly passes and gradually the little birds don their 
blue dresses and the cocks their crimson ear-patches or cheeks. 
Generally this occupies some weeks, but it is not till the 
following spring that the young birds get quite like the adults. 
I had a good few of these birds but unwisely left them out all 
the wintei'. The result was that I lost nearly my entire 
flock, and I have only one hen and several cocks left. I have 
tried very hard to get another hen but so far without success; 
I even ofi'ered 10s. for a single hen, but failed to procure it 
at that figure, and yet we have often bought this most exquisite 
