312 Major M. S. Aidham—Breeding of Cinnamon-breasted Rock Buntings


on the upper surface of the closed wings. In F. tahapisi, putting it

very briefly, the cock bird has the head and throat black, with seven

white bands from the bill to back of neck.


In September, 1936, the pair was turned into an outdoor aviary

24 by 8 by 9 feet high, 10 by 8 feet of which is closed shelter.

On 23rd October, one egg was laid, greenish-brown mottled all over.

The hen had great difficulty with the next (soft-shelled) egg. However,

with the aid of heat she made a very good recovery, but I separated the

sexes, and had the hen caged indoors until the following spring, when

the pair was again put out in the same aviary.


Early in June a nest was completed in a site which I will describe

later, 7 feet above the ground in the shelter. The nest, a very small

one in proportion to the size of the birds, was composed of odds and

ends of heather and coarse grass. It was lined with coarse grass, no

very fine material being used, though available. The first and only egg

was laid on cr about 5th June. The cock took no part in the incubation.

On 18th June the chick was hatched, and on the evening of 1st July it

left the nest. The hen alone reared the chick until it left the nest. She

did not seem to want the cock to have anything to do with the job.

She had quite a varied diet, including soft food which she wouldn’t

touch, and she reared practically entirely on soaked canary, meal¬

worms, ants’ eggs, a lot of flaked cuttle, and chickweed and lettuce.

Soaked sprays and other millets were hardly touched. As soon as the

young of this nest and the next could feed themselves neither they nor

the parents had any more use for mealworms. The cock spent a lot

of time catching insect life in the flight. Soaked seed was supplied

to them on the ground of the flight, where they liked it, and also in

dishes in the shelters, which wasn’t so popular.


On 18th July I found that the hen had two chicks just hatched in

her second nest, and two eggs. That struck me as being quick work,

as she must have started laying only a day or two after the first nest

chick left the nest. This (second) nest was also constructed of quite

rough material, this time in an old Hartz cage screened with heather.


On 1st August the first of the four chicks left the nest, and on

3rd August all four were out in the flight, and flying strongly.


On 9th August the hen had laid two eggs in her old original nest.



