324 N. Wharton-Tigar—Breeding the Black-crowned Waxbill


portion of the aviary I placed a large bundle of pea-sticks, reaching

from floor to roof; the Red-heads soon made a typical nest in this,

and the Waxbills followed with one above it touching the low roof;

it was domed and rounded, made of soft hay, and lined with a

few feathers. Eggs were laid and came to nothing.


In July the weather was dreadful—constant rain and very cold.

The Waxbills repaired their nest and soon were evidently sitting,

because one bird was always missing. I supplied seeding wild grasses,

insectivorous food, yolk of egg, but they abandoned their nest and sat

disconsolate ; so I went in and found four dead youngsters from one

to four days old and came to the conclusion they had died through lack

of something in the diet. The birds began again, and this time I

determined to leave no stone unturned ! I soaked many seeds in wet

sand round the water-pot; so that they were always germinating. I

gave the birds fresh seeding grasses twice daily, and my kind friend,

Mr. A. Morrison, sent me a huge box of leaf-mould teeming with live

ants’ eggs. The Waxbills at once began eating them, and they

accounted for a surprising number per day ; for a time they ate little

else, they seemed to search for and find minute insects, and they loved

a flowering grass-seed, called, I believe, Boa jperennis, which abounds

in London gardens fortunately.


The hen slept in the nest the first twelve days or so after hatching

but afterwards she slept out with the cock ; they were both very

secretive about their affairs, but later they frequently went into the

nest while I was watching. I managed not to interfere until the

youngsters were nearly due to leave the nest; and then one day I did

dare all, and boldly went in and felt inside to retire happy and

relieved, for I touched masses of little warm quills !


I then removed the Parrot Finches and their young to another

aviary, and had the pleasure some days later of finding four healthy

little Waxbills out and about—not over wild, and well able to find

their way in and out of the nest, which they did frequently in the day

and always at night. At the time of writing the birds are two months

old and they still all sleep in the old nest. In coloration these young

Waxbills are very like the parents, but the beaks are black and not

tipped with red above as in the adults, and they have white beads at



