301) The Brced'ui<^ of the Brown-cared Coiiurcs. 
fifty yards at a time. When spring (-anie, only four out of 
the; original nine remained. One very nic " pair made I heir 
home on the house and stables, and I luid great ho[)es that 
tlu y might breed. L'nforlunately, hovve\ er, one of them met 
vvitlt an. accident, and soon afterwards the hen ot tnc second pair 
was killed by a dog. A third disappeared, and by the autunm 
only a single bird remained. 
I may add that tlie Doves were fed upon the u ;u;d 
mixture of small seeds. 
♦ 
The Breeding of the Brown-eared Conures. 
iiV W. SilORR B.MLKV. 
Nesting, as do most of the Parrots, det'p down at the 
bottom of some hollow limb, particulars of their breeding 
operations arc not easy to obtain. Jn my aviaries the 
nesting bo.xes already illustrated in "J3.i\." make a very 
efficient substitute for the hollow log, and they have the ad- 
vantage that the inmates can be examined at any time. It is 
of course, as they grow so slowly, not nearly so interesting 
to watch young I'arrots in the nest, as to note the progress 
of young softbills and hardbills in the baby stages, but our 
Editor wants it done^ when any bird is bred here in cap- 
tivity for the Hrst time, and, of course he must be obeyed. 
hast autunm our member, Mr. Silver, informed tne 
he had a pair of Conures, that differed in one or two re- 
spects from the Brown-throated Conure (C. acrugiiiosus), 
figured in Seth .Smith's book ( " Parrakeets ") and he thought 
that they must be C ocularis. Althougii at the time I 
was rather full up. with Parrakeets and Conures of ditYerent 
kinds, 1 tlrought that as the variety had never been bred Ui 
captivity, it was an opportunity tiiat ought not to be missed, 
so f asked him to send them on. On their arrival 1 turned 
them into an aviary containing Blaclc-headed Conures, Kostlla 
Parrakeets, and various sniall birds. About a week later 
I found the lien in a state of collapse on the floor of the 
aviary. i fancy tliat the Black-heads must have kept her 
away from tlic seed tray — she had been practically starved, 
1 quickly removed both buds to my iadoor Dirdroom, 
