230 
Nesting Notes for 1921. 
reared four young), and a pair of S. African Ground Thrushes 
{CeoclchJa litsibsirupa), hand-reared birds from last year. 1 
heHeve. They are fine upstanding birds, marked much hke our 
song thrush, but with a lighter ground-work and more decided 
spots; the tail is very much shorter than is the case with tne true 
thrushes and ouzels, and the birds are seldom off the ground, 
except at night, when they prefer a board or the top of a box to 
a branch for roosting purposes. I have read somewhere that 
the African Ground Thrushes in general are poor songsters, but 
suspect that the present species must be an exception, as I have 
lately heard my male recording very nicely on several occasions. 
No attempt at nesting with these birds. 
No. 2 Aviary : There were seven Diamond Doves with 
a preponderance, I think, of females. Many eggs were laid, 
sometimes four in one nest, and a fair number of young reared 
to leave the nest, but only one reached maturity. These, like 
many other species of doves, so often leave the nest too soon, 
or else are neglected by their parents just before they have 
reached independence. I know of no cure for the latter fault, 
which is due to the old birds' anxiety to go to nest again, but I 
have noticed that when a suitable site is chosen for the nest, such 
as an old blackbird's nest, or a shallow box, the young squabs 
stay there for a good fortnight and then leave the nest well 
grown and able to fly strongly, whereas when hatched in the 
typical flimsy nest built with a few straws and small twigs in a 
bush, they either tumble out or get pushed out, and spend a week 
or more on the ground, quite unable to rise. In the latter case 
it is well to put the young in a deep wooden box provided with a 
low perch. Here the parents will always feed them (if they 
wish to) and they stand less chance of being trodden on or of 
dying from exposure. 
A pair of American Robins (Turdus migraforius) came to 
me rather late in the season; the hen was given to me by Mr. 
Astley who had no mate for her, notwithstanding which she had 
built and laid when in his aviaries. I had great hopes that I 
should again rear the species which had done very well here in 
past years. On two separate occasions the hen got busy and 
nearly completed a nest in one day. but that was as far as she 
went. The cock did a little desultory singing right through 
