Nesting of the Mealy Redpoll. 
181 
round punctually by Mary on a cold foggy winter's morning 
instead ot having to forage for oneself with every probability 
of linding nothing better than a few tough and tasteless old 
planfain heads. On the whole i think 1 shall try to (ind 
my way back to Devon next autumn and give the old place 
•A look up. For the present 1 must bid adieu to all my 
friends in the old countiy, including those members of the 
F.B.C., who have been introduced to me during the past 
live years. 1 wish tliem all and also the good old " Mag." 
the best of luck. Think of me sometimes and don't forget 
that I am the only Mealy Redpoll who ever wrote an article 
and perhaps the only one who ever brought up and edu- 
cated two well-grown families in one seaso;i in an aviary. 
Nesting of the Mealy Redpoll. 
By W. E. Tkschemaker, B.A. 
During the past seven years I have had a good num- 
ber of nests of this species built in my aviaries but, for 
one reason or another, until last season, the young were never 
fully reared. On one occasion mice devoured the eggs; on 
another the young (just hatched) and the adult female perished 
in a gale of wind, accompanied by torrents of rain, which, 
lasted without intermission for twenty-four hours. This was 
rather remarkable because it was the only adult bird wiiich 
I have ever lost through stress of weather when incubating 
and it is odd that so hardy a species as this should have fui'- 
nished the single instance. This particular hen, however, was 
in bad feather and the nest was in a most exposed position, 
high up and above the top of the wall surrounding the aviary. 
What i.; istill more ^-emarkable is that this species, which cannot 
endure heat and travels so far north to breed, should have 
bred so very freely in the hottest summer which has been 
known in England for forty years. The real explanation, I 
think, of this apparent paradox is that for the lirst time I 
tried them last summer in an aviary where there were no. 
shrubs. This species feeds its young largely on buds, and al- 
though we often see statements that such-and-such shrubs are 
innocuous, as a matter of fact all shrubs are more or less 
poisonous and this is so not only in the case of young birds 
