Notes on flic Pekin Robin. 2()9 
her on the perch and rxlcnding his neck in all sorts of 
convenient attitudes for this operation. His wife, I am sorry 
to say, takes no interest whatever in him, ahhough he long 
since completed a beautiful house for her. Possibly the toler- 
ation of both the Pekins is due to pity for his forlorn 
condition 
By Wf.sikv T. Pacr, r\Z.S., Err. 
I am j)leased to say, llial tliis little yarn has a happier 
ending than that so interestingly told by Mr. Low, and with 
his notes preceding this', I shall conlinc myself to the nesting 
episode. 
r^or some twenty-tive years or more this charming and 
vivacious species has been a frequent occu]wnt of my aviaries, 
yet this season is ilie lirsi tini;' they liave seriously attempted 
to nest with me. True, this is the hrst year tliey have had 
a place in my present axiary, and this event may be taken 
as an argument in favour of the naturally planted garden 
aviary, as in previ(nis times when I ha\e kept the species, 
my accommodation has been cut up into small enclosures, 
and the number and variety of their inmates has made natural 
cover impossible, and the many pairs I have had at one 
time or another showed their disapproval of such conditions by 
refusing to make even an attempt at nesting, though they 
lived long and apparently happy lives, with a strong partial- 
ity of eggs for breakfast— other birds' eggs, for so far as I 
know they never laid an egg till this season. 
My present pair were presented to me by our member 
Captain J. S. Reeve, who, owing to being called to the colours, 
has closed his aviaries till he is free from military duty. They 
came tc me in late April, and by the middle of May their 
first nest was built and they were busy incubating a clutch of 
eggs. The nest was in the middle of a thick privet bush, 
and was a beautiful construction. Four nests have been built 
in all, and all of them of the same type as that in the illus- 
tration, viz.: a suspended cradle. With this nest all went 
well for a week, then there was a scrimmage, but I can give 
no details, the nest got damaged and the eggs broken, while 
for that day and the next the Pekins made the aviary a 
melancholy place owing to their plaintive, distressful calls. 
Then they made up their minds that it was no use " crying 
over spilt milk ' and repaired the nest and deposited another 
