Elsie Robinson—Attempts to Breed Violet-eared Waxbills 273


and so get more of the necessaries of life ? We wonder. Comparable

cases have been recently recorded of human twins, identically fed ;

one has developed into a healthy and vigorous child and the other been

rickety. Why? No answer has so far been vouchsafed. But one notices

that with all sorts of birds, and such mammals as one has been able

to notice, that it is the greedy ones (the best feeders) that develop into

the finest and most vigorous specimens.


It may be noticed that the first person plural is freely used in this

article ; this is because such success as has been attained would have

been entirely unattainable had it not been for the interest and

co-operation of Mrs. Aviculturist with the writer, and so explains an

apparently dual personality.



ATTEMPTS TO BREED VIOLET-EARED

WAXBILLS


By Elsie Robinson


I am setting down these notes in the hope that any experience

and knowledge I have gained this season in my attempt to breed this

most beautiful of all Waxbills may be of assistance to members of the

Society and eventually lead to successful results.


The cock bird, one of a pair which I purchased from Mr. Frostick,

has been in my possession two years and nine months—the hen, which

was unacclimatized, I bought of Messrs. Gamage last winter. I have

kept the pair as hard as possible, using very little heat, but confined to

the bird-room until early May. The cock bird, a fine specimen, was

anxious to nest, and persisted to such purpose (although he was a long

time in selecting a site) that a nest was built early in June in their

winter quarters, a caged section of the inside aviary measuring 5 feet by

3 feet. The nest, roughly made in a branch, was placed fairly high, and

built by the cock unaided. The first clutch of four eggs was laid with,

so far as I know, an interval of a day between, the hen commencing to

incubate from the first egg laid and the cock taking his turn in sitting

on the nest.



