234



A. SherrijJ—In a Hampstead Garden



a week we are still at a loss to understand. However, another nest was

started and two eggs hatched. We decided to give the parents their

liberty for the second clutch. Everything seemed well, but apparently

they were too happy with their new found liberty to worry sufficiently

about the fledgelings. So another disappointment ! Now the parent

birds have been left free in the garden and most strangely the hen has

built a nest in a flower-pot in the Sibias’ aviary (which is, of course,

open) and is now busy sitting on three eggs. Dare we hope for a real

success this time ? The eggs should be hatched any day now.


It is better for the birds to find their natural food for the young,

than that they should be fed on meal-worms, which are a poor, though

a necessary, substitute. They are delightful to have about the garden

and tame enough to take meal-worms from the fingers. We are wonder¬

ing whether there will be any trouble when and if the Shamas begin to

feed their young as the three Sibias are in and out of the aviary all

day long. The latter are carrying meal-worms to a copper-beech tree

about two hundred yards away so it seems obvious that they have

young.


A pair of Ruficaudas and a pair of Bicheno Finches were given one

of the large bird-rooms with an outdoor flight for breeding purposes,

but nothing happened, though the Ruficaudas made some attempt

to build a nest. We came to the conclusion that the Bicheno Finches

were worrying them, particularly as the cock Ruficauda was very

inclined to be spiteful towards the Bicheno Finches. As soon as the

latter were moved into an aviary on their own, the Ruficaudas built

a nest and laid two eggs, but the nest was so badly built, in fact it was

difficult to find any entrance at all, that the hen could not sit. We

pulled this nest out of the tree and they then built a proper one,

incubated, and hatched two out of three eggs. One of the young is in

excellent condition, but the second does not seem to have grown its

feathers properly yet and has some difficulty in flying.


At the same time the Bicheno Finches reared three young, all of

which are doing well. We have never tried giving these small Finches

their liberty, though on occasions, when the door has been left open

accidentally, there have been as many as twenty Waxbills loose in the

garden and we have found no difficulty in catching them up again.



