All ii(^hts rcscn'cd. February, 1918. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 
Aviary Notes for 1917, 
By Maurice Amsler, M.B., F.Z.S. 
It is only a sense of duty to tlie Journal, which again 
forces me to manufacture some copy in order to satisfy the 
lulitor's insatialjle appetite. He has reminded me more than 
once tliat I have written nothing- during the past year, but, as the 
I'oreign Bird Chib numbers some four-liundred members, a very 
forcible retort would be that I am not the only defaulter; anyone 
can send in notes of breeding successes and failures for the past 
season, and this is all I am capable of doing myself — having- 
im fortunately no startling" episode to narrate. 
T have now a much diminished stock of birds owing 
to the difficulty if replacing voids produced, both by deaths and 
parting' with birds which have proved either disappointing or 
undesirable. 
My Orchard Finches (Phrygilus fruticeti) again reared 
young" this summer and the offspring, a true pair, have gone to 
Mr. Shore Baily. who will give them an excellent home and the 
very best possible chance of reproducing their kind. 1 have 
hitherto failed to mention that the male of this species under- 
goes an autumnal eclipse, and that he dons the black gorget in 
the spring" — the pearl grey breast of the winter plumage is to 
me more attractive than the somewhat severe nuptial plumage. 
Green Cardinaes (Gubcrnatrix crisfata ) reared three 
young; one of them I found had a broken thigh, high up near 
the hip, an accident which probably happened shortly after it 
left tlie nest by getting hung up in a forked twig or the wire 
netting. When I noticed the injury the fracture had already 
united and was in a very bad position, the hind toe pointing for- 
wards. I refractured the thigh-bone and was able to place its 
