66 Notes on the Breeding of Tanagers. 
some experience with a fair knowledge of the idiosj^ncrasiea of 
the class AVES, has learned that such experiences are in- 
separable from the cult of aviculture. 
Notes on the Breeding of Tanagers. 
By J. Easton Scott, M.A., M.B.Ch.B. 
Not only do the Tanagers make one of the most in- 
teresting groups of birds from what one might call the 
spectacular point of view, but until comparatively recently 
so few have been successfully bred in captivity, that the 
nesting of these birds has a special fascination to those of us 
who arc interested in the breeding of foreign birds. So often 
are one's hopes raised, so seldom are they fulfilled! As a 
nation we are recognised for our dogged pluck— for our for- 
titude in the face of disappointment and failure. What pro- 
portions these characteristics would assume if we were all 
members of some National F.B.C. — all determined to acliieve 
success in the breeding and rearing of foreign birds — it is 
difficult to think, but at any rate we should be a nation of 
Stoics! Fate is never more teasingly capricious than between 
the time the nest is built and that at which the young are 
able to take care of themselves. It has been said recently in 
our Magazine that it is almost impossible to breed any in- 
sectivorous birds if other insectivora are kept in the same 
aTviary. This may be true, though I am more inclined to think 
that so long as the species are not the same the breeding 
birds suffer little disturbance. [The difficulty is not one of 
disturbance but to keep up an adequate supply of live-food, 
with so many ready to snap up every insect as soon as they 
are pu* in the aviary. — Ed.] The following notes perhaps 
savour more of failure than success, but I cannot describe 
the failures to the interference of other birds. In the 
aviary where these episodes took place, besides numerous 
seed-eaters, there were Grey-winged Ouzels, Rufous-throated 
Sugarbirds, Superb, Tricolour, Pretre's, Scarlet, and Blue Tan- 
agers, and though they were carefully watched in case of dis- 
asters, the birds never seemed to interfere with each other, 
either by quarrelling or by curiosity. There were, however, 
only one pair, or odd birds, of each species. 
