112 
Edilorial. 
Nesting Notes : Some of our uienibers are meeting with 
good success with Grassfiiiches, etc., and others are liaving, like 
myself, a run of ill-luck, particularly with the rarer and insecti- 
vorous species. Just on going to press, news reaches me from 
one of our members tliat he has just lost a brood of Blue Gros- 
beaks, which were five days old and, up to that time, had given 
ever}' indication that they would be reared ; in this case there 
was both variety and quantity of live insect food ; but the Gros- 
beaks were true to the reputation of this group in captivity and 
threw out or ate the young. From Mr. Willford I hear that he 
has had a most interesting experience in his aviaries, viz., con- 
firmation of the parasitical habits of tiie Silky Covvbird (^Molothrns 
bonarieiisis), four eggs have been laid in the nests of various 
other species, but, unfortunately, none of these have hatched out. 
I refrain from giving further details as Mr. Willford is preparing 
a paper " Nesting Notes for the Present Season" — which we 
shall hope to publish in our next issue. 
Thp: Uncertainties of Aviculture : There are certain 
species of foreign birds which can be relied upon to breed almost 
as freely as Canaries, such as Zebra and Ribbon Finches, White 
Java Sparrows, some Grassfinches, Budgerigars and the like, 
but with the rarer species and the iiisccii vora, there are usually 
man}' failures before success is finally attained, and only iu a 
few instances is it attained in the initial instance — so much is 
this the rule that when such occurs most experienced avicullurisls 
are apt to attribute their success to a " happy fluke," even though 
every provision had been made to attain it. These remarks are 
general, and are the experience of those with almost unlimited 
accommodation, as well as those whose accommodation is very 
limited, and are written to prevent those of our members who 
are young in the fascinating pursuit of aviculture from being 
discouraged by initial failure. 
