UC-NRLF SB Tfl flDT (I'/.KT I) ."----. .- - --' ' '- '>, - FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. BY ARTHUR Q. BUTLER, PH.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., ETC. PART I. THE SAALLER FOREIGN BIRDS. ILLUSTRATED. "THE FEATHERED WORLD," "CANARY AND CAGE-BIRD LIFE," 9, ARUNDEL STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. All rights reserved* ILLUSTRATIONS. Alario Finch, Head of ... Bluebird, Head of ... ... ... Bluebirds or Blue Robins ... Bulbul, Red-vented, Head of Bulbuls, Red-vented ... ... Bunting, Rock ... Cardinal, Red-crested, Head of ... Cardinals, Green, Red-crested, and Virginian Cordon Bleu Cuba Finches Dayal Bird Diamond Sparrows ... Pinch, Bicheno's ... ... ,, Crimson ... ,, Gouldian, Black-headed and Red-headed ... ,, Grass, Long-tailed ... .,, Grass, Masked ,, Grass, White-eared ... ... ,, Guttural (male and female), Lined, Reddish, White-throated, and Bluish ,, Parrot ... ... ,, Parson ... Pileated, Head of ,, Quail , , . v . v ,, Red-headed ... . . , ... Rufous-tailed Fruit Sucker, Blue-winged ' Gold-fronted Honey -Eater, Lewin's Wattled Yellow-tufted PAGE 109 24 25 34 35 117 136 135 158 148 21 169 172 161 163 166 165 165 149 162 167 133 1*6 ; 175 *17Q.; 42 58 ; 71 '> 68 Hybrid, Bicheno-Zebra Finch ,, Grass Finch Parson Finch- White Bengalee Java Sparrows Mannikin, Three-coloured, Head of Three-coloured, Black-headed and White- headed Mesias, Silver-eared Pekin Nightingale, Head of Rock Thrush Shania, Indian Singing Finch, Green Siskin, Black-headed Sivas, Blue-winged ... Sugar Bird, Blue ,, ,, Yellow-winged ... Tanager, Black-backed ,, Festive ,, Magpie, Blue and Archbishop ... ,, Superb, Head of ,, Violet, Scarlet and Superb ... ,, Yellow Tits, Red-sided Waxbills Violet-eared ,, Zebra Weaver, Napoleon, Head of White-Eye, The ,, Chinese, Head of Whydahs, Giant, Paradise and Crimson-collared ... ,, Paradise, Heads of ... Wood Swallows, Dusky I'AGE 179 172 167 183 182 181 29 28 18 23 106 96 31 73 72 79 90 77 31 75 82 32 159 154 194 62 62 191 189 55 CONTENTS PAGE Aviaries and Management 7 9 BABBLERS (Crateropodidce) 44 51 Jay-Thrush, Chinese, 44; Masked, 45; Collared, 45; White-crested, 46; White- throated, 47; Black-gorgeted, 47; Striated, 48. Laughing-Thrush, Red-headed, 48; Spectacled Thrush, 48 ; Black-headed Sibia, 49; Golden-eyed Babbler, 50; Grey Stru- thidea, 51 ; Grey Hypocolius, 51. BLUEBIRDS (Sialia) : Blue Robin BLUETHROATS (Cyanecula) BULBULS (Pycnonotidce) Black, 34 ; Red-vented, 35 ; Black-capped, 36 ; Syrian, 36 ; White-eared, 36 ; Yellow- vented, 37 ; Dusky, 38; Chinese, 38; White- cheeked, 39 ; Red-eared, 39 ; Brown-eared, 40 ; Rufous-bellied, 40 ; Yellow-crowned, 40 ; Spotted-winged, 40. Bullfinch, Desert Trumpeter ,, Japanese 24 21 34 40 97 111 112136 BUNTINGS (Emberizince) Grey-headed, 112; Yellow-browed, 113; Golden-breasted, 113 ; Red-headed, 114 ; Yellow-breasted, 114 ; Red-backed or Ruddy, 115; Masked, 115; Bona- parte's, 116; White-crowned or Pine, 116; Rock, 117 ; Striolated Rock, 118 ; Sahara or House, 118 ; Cape, 119 ; Crested Black, 119 ; Lark, 120; White-shouldered Lark, 121; White-throated Song Sparrow, 121 ; White- eyebrowed Song Sparrow, 121 ; Grey-headed Song Sparrow, 122 ; Chingolo Song Sparrow, 122 ; Nonpareil Bunting, 123 ; Indigo Bunt- ing, 123 ; Lazuli Bunting, 124 ; Varied Non- pareil, 124 ; American Snow-bird, 125 ; Oregon Snow-bird, 125 ; Chipping Sparrow, 126 ; Vesper Sparrow or Bay-winged Bunt- ing, 127; Sandwich Bunting, 127; Manimbe Seaside Sparrow, 127 ; Melodious Sparrow, 123; Fox Sparrow, 129; Red-eyed Ground- Finch, 129 ; Mexican Spotted Ground-Finch, 130 ; Black-throated Bunting, 130 ; Citron Finch, 130; Gay's Finch, 131; Orchard Finch, 131 ; Alaudina Finch, 132 ; Diuca Finch, 132 ; Pileated Finch, 132 ; Red-crested Finch, 133. Cardinals, Green, 133 ; Yellow- billed, 134; Red-headed or Dominican, 134; Red-crested, 136. Cape Canary 104 Cardinal* ... 133137 CAT BIRDS (Galevscoptes) 27 American, 27. Chaffinches 91 92 DRONGOS (Dicruridce) ... 53 Large Racket-tailed, 53 ; Indian or Hair- crested, 53. FINCHES (Fringillidce) 91112 Typical Finches Blue Chaffinch, 91 ; Madeiran Chaffinch, 91 ; Canarian Chaffinch, 92; Algerian Chaffinch, 92; Eastern Gold- finch, 92 ; American Siskin, 92 ; Yarrell's Siskin, 93 ; Indian Siskin, 93 ; Arkansas Siskin, 94 ; Colombian Siskin, 94 ; Yellow- bellied Siskin, 94 ; Yellow-rumped Siskin, 95; Black Siskin, 95; Black-chinned Siskin, 95 ; Black-headed Siskin, 96 ; Hooded Siskin, 96 ; Pine Siskin, 97 ; Totta or South African Siskin, 97 ; Desert Trumpeter Bullfinch, 97 ; Rock Sparrow, 98; Yellow-throated Rock Sparrow, 98 ; Lesser Rock Sparrow, 99; White-throated Rock Sparrow, 99; Southern Rock Sparrow, 100 ; Cape Sparrow, 100; Grey-headed or Swamson's Sparrow, 101 ; Desert Sparrow, 101 ; Yellow Sparrow, 102; Golden Sparrow, 102; Saffron-Finch, Pelzeln's Saffron-Finch, 103; Yellowish Finch, 104. Serins or Canaries Cape Canary, 104; Sulphur Seed-eater, 105; St. Helena Seed-eater, 105 ; Green Singing Finch, 106; White-throated Seed-eater, 107; Grey Singing Finch, 107 ; Yellow-rumped or Angola Serin, 107 ; Himalayan or Red- fronted Seed-eater, 108; Alario Finch, 108. Hose Finches Scarlet Rose-Finch, 109 ; Sepoy Finch, 110; Purple Rose-Finch, 110; Blood-stained Finch, 110 ; Japanese Bull- finch, 111 ; Pine Grosbeak, 111 ; Long-tailed Rose-Finch, 112. FLOWER PECKERS (Dicceidcc) 63 64 Spotted Panther-bird, 64. FLYCATCHERS (Muscicapidce) 59 61 Blue Wren, 59; Rufous-bellied Niltava, 60. FRUITSUCKEHS (Chloropsis) 41 44 Gold-fronted, 41 ; Malabar, 43 ; Blue-winged, 43. GHASSFINCHES AND MANNIKINS (Muniince) ... 161175 Crimson Finch, 161 ; Parrot Finch, 161 ; Three-coloured Parrot-Finch, 161 ; Pintailed Nonpareil, 162 ; Gouldian Finch, 164 ; White- eared Grassfinch, 165; Masked Grassfinch, 165 ; Long-tailed Grassfinch, 166 ; Parson Finch, 166 ; Diamond or Spotted-sided Finch, 168 ; Painted Finch, 168 ; Rufous-tailed Grass- finch, 168 ; Fire-tailed Grassfinch, 170 ; Zebra Finch, 171 ; Bicheno's Finch, 172 ; Ringed Finch, 173; Cherry Finch, 173; Indian Silver-bill, 173; African Silver-bill, 174; Ribbon Finch, 174; Red-headed Finch, 175. Goldfinches Greenfinch GROSBEAKS (Coccothraustince) Virginian Cardinal, 136 ; Venezuelan or Purple Cardinal, 137 ; Thick-billed Cardinal, 137 ; Chinese Greenfinch, 137 ; Black-tailed Hawfinch, 138 ; Japanese Hawfinch, 139 ; Black and Yellow Hawfinch, 139 ; Golden- bellied Grosbeak, 140 ; Rose-breasted Gros- beak, 140 ; Black-headed Grosbeak, 141; Northern Blue Grosbeak, 141; Lazuline, 142 ; Southern Blue Grosbeak, 142; Tropical Seed-Finch, 142; Thick- billed Seed-Finch, 143 ; Jacarini Finch, 143. Spermophilce White-throated Finch, 144; Half-white Finch, 144; Grey Gros- beak, 144 ; Plumbeous Finch, 144 ; Euler's Finch, 145; Lavender-backed Finch, 145; Fire-red Finch, 145; Reddish Finch, 146; Collared Finch, 146; Black-banded Finch, 146 ; Spectacled Finch, 146 ; Lineated Finch, 146; Bluish Finch, 147; Guttural Finch, 147; Ocellated or Black-headed Lined Finch, 147; Lined Finch, 148. Hawfinches 138140 92 137 136148 383847 CONTEXTS. HOXEY-EATERS (Mdiplmyhhr) Poe, Tui, or Parson-bird, 64 ; Lunulated or White-naped, 65; Strong-billed, 65; White-eared, 66; Yellow-tufted, 67; Yellow, 67; Lewin's, 68; Fuscous, 69; Garrulous. 69; Wattled, 69; Blue-faced, 70; Black-tailed, 70. MAXXIKIXS (Mniiliixe) Quail Finch, 176; Sharp-tailed Finch, 177; Striated Finch. 177 ; Bengalee, 178 ; Common Spice-Finch, 178; Bar-breasted Finch, 178; Topela Finch, 178; Malayan Spice-bird, 178; Pectoral Finch, 178; Chestnut-breasted Finch, 179; Yellow-pumped Mannikin. 180; White-headed Mannikin, 180; Javan Maja- Finoh. 180; Black-headed Mannikin, 182; Three-coloured Mannikin, 182 ; Java Spar- inw, or Rice-bird. 183; Magpie Mannikin, 184 : Two-coloured Mannikin, 184 ; Rufous- hackod Mannikin, 184; Bronze Mannikin, 185; Bib Finch, 185. MAGPIE ROBINS (f'tiiisi/rhu.*) Dayal, 21; Seychellean, 22. MOCKING-BIRDS (Mimince) Common. 26 ; Saturnine, 27. ORIOLES (Orinii/lu-) Black-napcd, 52; Sykes', 52. Saffron Finches SHAMAS (Cittorim-ln] Indian, 22; Chestnut-bellied, 22. SHRIKES (Laniidw) Indian Grey, 57; Bay-backed, 58; Four- coloured, 58. Singing Finches ... ... ... Siskins Song Sparrows SPARROWS (Pitr<,i SUGAR-BIRDS (Cm PAGE 64 70 176185 and 2'utst./-) Yellow-winged, 72 ; Purple, headed, 73; Blue, 73. 73 ; Black- TAXAGERS (Tanayiidce) ............ All-green, 74; Yellow-fronted, 76; Black- necked, 76 ; Chestnut-fronted, 76 ; Gold- fronted, 76; Greenish, 76; Dwarf, 78; Violet, 78; Thick-billed, 78; Pectoral, 78; Black-bellied, 78; Lead-coloured, 79; Jamaica, 79: Reel-bellied, 80; Blue- and-black, 80; Black-backed, 80; Para- dise, 80; Superb, 80; Three-coloured, 81 ; Festive, 82 ; Spotted Emerald, 82; Yellow, 82; Black-cheeked, 83; Chestnut-backed, 83; Black-shouldered, 83 ; Lavender-and-black 83 ; Yellow-bellied, 83 ; Blue-winged, 83 ; White-capped, 84 ; Silver-blue, 84; Blue-shouldered, 84; Sayaca, 84 ; Palm, 84 ; Archbishop, 85 ; Striated. 85 ; Scarlet, 85 ; Maroon, 86 ; Sum- mer, 86; Red, 86: Black-and-red, 87; Louisiana, 87; Saira, 87: Black, 87; Little Black, 88: Crested, 88: Crowned, 88; Fasciated, 88 ; Bahama, 88 ; Great Saltator, 89; Allied Saltator, 89; Orange-billed, 89; Magpie, 90 ; Black-headed, 90 ; Fuliginous or Smoky, 90. THRUSHES (Turdidfe) ............... TRUE THRUSHES (Turdince) American Wood, 9; Migratory, 10; Dwarf, 10; Swain- son's. 11 ; Tawny. 11 ; Falkland-Island. 11 ; Red-bellied, 12; Dusky. 12; White-bellied, 13; Sorry, 13; Gray's, 13. BLACKBIRDS OR OUZELS (MentionGrey- winged, 14 : Yellow-footed, 15 ; Chinese, 15 ; Grey, 15 ; Grey-headed, 16. 21- 22 26 27 52 53 102103 22 24 57 59 106107 93 97 121122 98102 70- 74 74 91 9 21 SO-CALLED GROUND-THRUSHES (Geocichla) Orange-headed, 16 ; White-throated, 17 ROCK-THRUSHES (Monticola) Common 18; Blue, 19. WHISTLING-THRUSHES (Myiophoneus) Horsfield's 20. MOCK-THRUSHES Brown, 27. TIT-LIKE BIRDS (Pen- idee) 28 33. ACCENTORIXE TITS (Liotrichince)Pekin Nightingale, 28; Silver-eared Mesia, 30; Blue-winged Siva, 32. TRUE TITMICE (Par us) Azure, 33; Red- sided, 33. WAGTAILS (Motac ill idee) 34 Pied Grallina, 34. WARBLERS (S>/!riina>) 26. Japanese Bush, 26. WAXBILLS (Esfrildi/xe) 151 150, Uuf resne's Waxbill, 151 ; Masked Firefinch, 151 ; Vinaceous Firefinch, 151 ; Black-tailed Lavender Finch, 152; Common Lavender Finch, 152; Bar-breasted Firefinch, 152; Common African Firefinch, 153 ; Brown- headed Firefinch, 153 ; Common Amaduvade Waxbill, 153; Zebra or Gold-breasted Wax- bill, 154; Orange-cheeked Waxbill, 155; Green Amaduvade, 155 ; Red-browed or Australian Waxbill, 155 ; St. Helena Wax- bill, 156 ; Grey Waxbill, 156 ; Rosy-rumped or SundevalTs Waxbill, 156 ; Crimson- winged Waxbill, 157; Red-faced Waxbill, 157; Crimson-faced Waxbill, 157; Yellow- throated Waxbill, 158; Cordon Bleu or Crimson-eared Waxbill, 158: Blue-breasted Waxbill, 160; Violet-eared Waxbill, 160. WEAVERS (I'locridce) 151160"' St ' \\'tl.rbillx. WEAVERS, TYPICAL (Ploccince) 197205. Scaly-fronted, 197; Speckled-fronted, 197; White-fronted, 198; Blue-beaked, 198; Bright-spotted, 198; White-billed Buffalo, 199; Chestnut-backed, 199; Short-winged, 199; Masked, 200; Yellowish, 200; Olivo, 200; Rufous-necked, 201; Black-headed, 201; Half-masked, 202; Black-fronted, 202; Eyebrowed, 203; Baya, 203; Black-throated, 204; Great-billed, 204; Bengal, 204; Manyah, 204 ; Madagascar, 205 ; Comoro, 205. WEAVING FIXCHES (Pficniparince) 148150' Black Seed, 148; Cuban, 148; Olive, 150; Little, 160; Dusky, 150. WHITE-EYES (Zosteropidce) 61 63' Grey-backed, 61 ; Indian, 61 ; Chinese, 62 ; Japanese, 63 ; Cape, 63 ; Yellow, 63. WHYDAHS AXD WHYDAH-LIKE WEAVERS (Viduina) 186 196> WHYDAHS Combaspu, 186 : Steel Finch, 186 : Ultramarine Finch, 186 : Resplendent Whydah, 187: Pin-tailed Whydah, 187; Shaft-tailed Whydah, 188: Paradise Why- dah, 188: Long-tailed Whydah, 189: Red- collared Whydah, 189 ; White-winged Why- dah, 190 : Yellow-backed Whydah, 190 : Red- shouldered Whydah, 191; Yellow-shouldered Whydah, 192. WEAVERS Yellow-shouldered, 193 : Golden- backed, 193 : Napoleon, 193 : Crimson- crowned. 194; Black-vented, 195: Grena- dier, 195; Orange, 195; Red-billed, 196; Red-headed, 196. WooD-S i WALLOW (Artamda) 54 57 White-eyebroweci, 54 ; Masked, 55 ; Duskv, 55; Ashy, 5b. PREFACE. E object of the present book is to supply a want long left by British students of foreign II birds in captivity. Whereas our German friends have the excellent volumes written iby the late Dr. Karl Russ, we have hitherto .had to be content with a few sketchy hand- books in this country. Therefore, when the Editor of The Feathered World and Canary and Cage-Bird Life informed me that the first part of my less ambitious work* was almost out of print, and asked me to pre- pare, as soon as possible, a more up-to-date edition, I suggested that we might as well do the thing properly, and write a book which should be practi- cally complete. This suggestion, I rejoice to say, was heartily approved of. Dr. Ru?s, who published the great German work, *'The Foreign Chamber-birds" (Die Fremdlandiechen Stubenvogel), was the Editor of the German "Feathered World " ; therefore it is most fitting that the sister work in England should be published by the Editor of the English paper with the same title. Aviculture, or the study of birds in captivity, prob- ably had its origin in prehistoric times, for we find that all the more enlightened races of mankind (often wrongly called savages) capture and keep their native birds as pets. The Chinese are probably the most ancient existing nation of bird-lovers, and it is quite likely that they were aviculturists a great many cen- turies ago. Henry Oldys, in an able paper upon the " Cage-bird Traffic of the United States," eays : "The practice of keeping live birds in confinement is world- wide, and extends so far back in history that the time -of its origin is unknown. It exists among the natives of tropical as well as temperate countries, was found in vogue on the islands of the Pacific when they were first discovered, and was habitual with the Peruvians under the Incas and the Aztecs under Montezuma. Caged birds were popular in classic Greece and Rome. The Alexandrian Parrakeet a ring-necked Parrakeet of India which is much fancied at the present day, is said to have been first brought to Europe by one of the generals of Alexander the Great. Before this living birds had been kept by the nations of Western * The articles under the title of "Foreign Bird-keeping" were published in March, 1893, and issued in book form in 1399 and 1900. ED. Asia, and the voices of Bulbuls and other attractive singers doubtless added to the charms of the hanging gardens of Babylon, while in China and Japan the art of domesticating wild birds has been practised for many centuries." It is tolerably certain that the ancient Hebrews were aviculturists, for " a cage of unclean birds" is mentioned in their writings, and we are well aware that Peacocks were brought over regularly to embellish Solomon's gardens. In order to be able to treat birds correctly in cap- tivity, it is necessary that one should be familiarised with the wild life, and therefore I have followed the excellent example set by Dr. Russ, and have done my best to get together field notes upon the majority of the species. In order to do this, I was obliged to add considerably to my already fairly comprehensive library, and when a work upon birds runs into many volumes at one or two guineas a volume, it will be understood that my work is to a great extent a labour of love. One objection raised to my smaller work, "Foreign Bird-keeping," was that I did not give sufficient information respecting the feeding of birds. I thought I had done so myself, but, at any rate, I do not think the same fault can, be found with the present work. Nevertheless, do what one will, one can never expect to escape scatheless from those reviewers who consider it their chief duty to discover the blemishes and pass over the good points in the book under their notice. There is one gocd thing, and that is that even an un- generous critique brings a work into notice, and the public judges it on its own merits. I have purposely omitted a few birds which are not in the least likely to come to hand nowadays. They are either strictly preserved, are becoming extinct, or are hardly ever to be met with in the hands of native dealers, and their standing as cage-birds rests upon a single chance specimen captured and brought home by some traveller. I do not consider it my duty to follow the example of the late Dr. Russ and include accounts of dozens of birds, on the chance that they may be eventually imported ; nor do I agree with him that a bird is unworthy of notice because it is of sombre colours and has no song ; it may nevertheless be a most interesting species to breed, one perhaps of PREFACE. -which the life-history is quite unknown to science. We should studj r birds, not merely keep them as if they were mere luxuries for the gratification of the senses of sight and sound. In conclusion, I can only hope that this work will be useful ; it is the result of many months' steady work, and embodies not only my own experience in the care of more than two hundred species of foreign birds, but that of many other strenuous workers. In order to do justice to it, I have had to refer constantly to nearly every book in my ornithological library, and this alone means the collation of interesting facts which cannot be got hastily together. A. O. BUTLER. The following works have been quoted from in the present volume : Andre, E. : A Naturalist in the Guianas. Aviculturcd Magazine, The (Journal of the Avicul- tural Society) ; First and Second Series. Bartlett, E. : A Monograph of the Weaver-Birds and Finches. Beebe, C. W. : Two Bird-Lovers in Mexico. Blanford, W. T. : Birds of Eastern Persia. Burmeister, Dr. H. : Systematische Uebersicht der Thiere Brasiliens ; Vogel (Part 3, Vol. II.). Buller, Sir W. : Birds of New Zealand. Butler, Dr. A. G. : Foreign Finches in Captivity. Foreign Bird-keeping (Part 1). Birds' Eggs of the British Isles. Hints on Cage-birds. How to Sex Cage-birds. Campbell, A. J. : Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum (Vols. VI., VII., VIII., XL, XII., XIII.). Catalogue of Eggs in the British Museum (Vol. IV.). Cooper, J. G. : Geological Survey of California; Ornithology (Vol. I). Crawshay, R. : The Birds of Tierra del Fuego. David, Pere, and Oustalet, Dr. J. F. E. : Oiseaux de Chine. Emu, The (Journal of the Australian Ornithologists' Union). Feathered World, The (edited by Mrs. Comyns- Lewer). Gould, J. : Handbook to the Birds of Australia (Vol. I.). Heuglin, M. T. von : Ornithologie Nordost-Africas (Vol. I.). Hume, A. 0., and Oates, E. W. : The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds (second edition, Vols. I. and II.). Ibis, The (Journal of the British Ornithologists' L'nion). Irby, Colonel L. H. : Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar. Jerdon, Dr. T. E. : Birds of India (Vols. I. and II.). Journal of the South African Ornithologists' Union, The Layard, Consul E. L., and Sharpe, Dr. R. B. : Birds of South Africa. Legge, Colonel W. V. : Birds of Ceylon (Vol II.). Miller, Mrs. Olive Thorne : Little Brothers of the Air. North, A. J. : Catalogue of Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania. Ornithologist and Oologist (Vol. X.). Ridgway, Professor R. : Birds of North and Middle America (Vols. L, II., and IV.). Russ, Dr. Karl : Die Gefiederte Welt (Vol. IX.. 1880). Handbuch fur Vogelliebhaber. Die Fremdlandischen Stubenvogel (Vols. I. and II.). Sclater, Dr. P. L., and Hudson, W. H. : Argentine Ornithology (Vol. L). Seebohm, H. : A History of British Birds (Vol. L). Birds of the Japanese Empire. Shelley, Captain G. E. : The Birds of Africa (Vols. III. and IV.). Stark, Dr. A. C. and Sclater, W. L. : The Birds of Africa (Vol. L). Taczanowski, L. : Ornithologie du Perou (Vol. II.). Tristram, Canon H. B. : Birds of Palestine. United States Natural History Museum, Proceedings of the. Whitaker, J. L. S. : Birds of Tunisia (Vol. L). Wiener, A. : CasseH's Cage-birds. Zoological iSociety of London : List of the Animals in the Gardens of the. (Ninth edition). Proceedings of the Meetings of the.. Zoologist, The (edited by W. L. Distant). Foreign Birds for Cage and Aviary. CHAPTER I. Aviaries and Management. AS regards the housing of one's birds, I still hold, as before, that for many reasons aviaries are preferable to cages. In them birds lead a more natural existence, for they have space in which to use their wings, to make love, marry, and rear families in comfort, to feed and bathe unmolested, or, if disturbed by their fellows, to dispute without serious danger. These changes of occupation are undoubtedly beneficial not only in respect of the active use of all the bird's organism, but in giving a cheerful tone to its mind'; whereas a solitary caged bird leads a monotonous life at best, aU its enjoyments being self-centred and unnatural. For breeding purposes the best type of aviary is one formed upon the general plan of some of those in the Zoological Gardens of Regent's Park; but there should be plenty of trees or shrubs in it, and, if possible, long and short grass. High up in corners, or on plat- forms raised upon stakes which may be covered over with ivy, hop, or Virginian creeper, bundles of rough brushwood should be placed, with nesting receptacles thrust here and there among the twigs. The aviary should have both summer and winter quarters of equal dimensions, though in the case of many hardy species this is not indispensable. The winter quarters should be formed in an artificially warmed brick building, well lighted and ventilated, and should communicate by a sliding wooden door with the outdoor summer aviary ; the latter ought by rights to face south, the part nearest the building being roofed in as a shelter in rough weather, and both this and the building con- taining the winter portion should be entered by doors opening from a glazed passage running along the eastern side. The open aviary will thus be protected against easterly winds, whilst any birds which may by chance escape into the covered passage can be captured and restored to their home. If, however, it is im- portant to economise space, the entrance to the indoor aviary must have two doors, the inner one wired, with a small lobby between the two, so that the outer door may be closed before the inner one is opened ; by this means not only are the inmates prevented from escaping, but if it is desired to capture them for any reason they can be driven into the small enclosure between the two doors and easily secured by hand. The wired part of an aviary should be formed of half- inch galvanised iron netting, and painted outside with Brunswick black, or some innocuous dark enamel. The entire aviary should stand at least a foot above the outside level on a foundation of concrete, having glazed tiled sides in order to prevent the ingress of mice and other noxious vermin. The furnishing of an aviary is to some extent a matter of taste, but for drinking and bathing purposes there is nothing better than a plain fountain kept always playing in a shallow glass basin, and running over into a larger bowl communicating with a properly con- structed drain ; the water is thus always fresh, and the purity of the surrounding air is maintained. As, however, this arrangement of running water is, as I know to my cost, very expensive, a tolerably good substitute may be provided by forming a shallow pan of cement in "the floor of the aviary, with a plug and pipe, to carry off foul water, let into the bottom as in lavatory basins; this type of combined drinking and bathing convenience is, in a more or less modified form, adopted by many aviarists. In aviaries of moderate size, in which there is only space for a border and a narrow path, plants in pots are frequently introduced, but a border of earth bounded by a smooth, and therefore easily cleaned, cemented wall is far better; this should be planted with box, cypress, broom, firs, and pines. Against the wall of the building, over the door connecting the double aviary, various receptacles to be used for nesting purposes should be fastened. In the absence of the wherewithal to enable the amateur to erect such a structure as I have described, he may utilise a room, or even part of one, as an aviary, covering the floor with zinc, to keep the mice out, nailing up pea-sticks against the walls for perches, and partly concealing his nest-boxes amongst them. My own aviaries are a kind of compromise between the two types above described. Cages must necessarily vary much, according to their occupants. Those usually offered for sale in bird shops are not always suitable. In no case should a cage be so constructed, or, at any rate, so placed, that a direct draught can blow through it. As a general rule, box- cages, with one or more small air-holes at the back near the roof, are most satisfactory. They are warm, and, when not kept in a close room, are healthy ; and their inmates grow tamer in a shorter time than in any other form of cage, simply from the fact that they are constantly compelled to face their owners. As a re- markable instance of this fact, I may mention that a freshly caught Song Thrush, placed in a cage of this pattern took yolk of egg from my fingers three days afterwards ; but it is only perhaps fair to note that this and other birds which became tame nearly as soon under the same conditions were caught during a very severe winter, and therefore were probably in a more than usually subdued frame of mind when netted. As a general rule, Blackbirds and Thrushes do not become quite steady until after their first moult in captivity, FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. and the same is true of those bred in large garden aviaries. Cages made wholly of metal or wicker are suitable enough if kept in a warm place out of all draughts, or hanging on a south wall out of doors ; but, otherwise, a cage having bars only in front is safer. The travs of all cages ought to be made of metal ; these are cleaner, less likely to harbour insects, and do not get so easily jammed as wooden trays. ' If it is desired to breed birds in cages, the latter must be considerably larger than otherwise ; moreover, whereas many pairs may be permitted to nest in a large aviary, a single pair only should be enclosed in each breeding-cage. The smallest cages suitable for breed- ino- forei-m birds should be of the following measure- ments : For small Parrakeets, Weavers, and the larger Finches the cage should be 3ft. to 4ft. long, 2ft. to 3ft high, 5ft. to 6ft. deep; for Cardinals, 5ft. to 6ft. long, 3ft. to 5ft. high, 8ft. to 9ft. deep; for Waxbills, Mannikins, and other small ornamental Finches, lift, long, lift, high, 1ft. deep. Large Parrots, Cockatoos, and Parrakeets, and all kinds of soft-billed birds should be bred in spacious aviaries. Nest-boxes suitable to the wants of the birds, and partly concealed by brushwood, should be fixed near the roof on the back wall of all breeding cages. After trying many forms of nesting receptacles, I have found" that nearly all the smaller Finches are best pleased with a box, in form like a full-sized cigar-box, but larger. This box is hung up with its long axis vertical, and with the upper third of the anterior face left open. The greater part of the box should be_ filled up with hay and moss, and other materials supplied to the birds in an open cage or net. The same box, and of the same size, is suitable for many other foreign Finches and Bluebirds. Next to the cigar-box type comes the German Canary cage, deprived of its acces- sories, supplied with a sound wooden floor, two hooks at the back to suspead it by, and one or more bars removed from the front. In this cage the Grey 'Sing- ing Finoh, Zebra Finches, Diamond Finches, and probably many others will build. Thirdly, I have found a little pasteboard travelling cage, with metal or wooden corners and a sliding door, very useful. The sliding-door is opened about two inches, and fixed there with tacks, and light enters the box through the regular perforated air-holes. Some years since I ob- served in one of Mr. Setli-Smith's aviaries one or two old straw hats tacked against a wall with a hole cut near the top of the oval of the crown ; in these my friend was most successful in breeding Parrot-Finches, which appeared to prefer them to all other receptacles in which to build their nests. In 1905 I tried the same as homes for Go'uldian Finches, and found, that they accepted them with pleasure ; I was thus for the first time successful in breeding these beautiful birds, which I had many times previously failed with. I do not doubt that most of the Grass-Finches, or, at any rate, all those which prefer to nest in thick cover, would welcome our cast-off head-gear as nursing-homes for their yoinm. For the larger Parrots, small barrels placed high up on a small platform seem to be readily accepted, the entrance being made at one end through a large hole ; for the larger Parrakeets, use either log-nests or boxes so constructed that platforms converge from the four inside walls to near the centre, in which a handful of sawdust is placed, the entrance being placed near the top at one end (see " Hints on Cage-Birds," p. 39) ; lastly, for the smaller Parrakeets and Lovebirds cocoanut husks may be provided. The best sand with which to cover the floor of an aviary or the tray of a cage is clean sea-sand, just as received from the shore ; it is wholly composed of grit, and the salt which it contains is decidedly beneficial to birds ; shell-sand, on the other hand, is dangerous, as the sharp fragments of shell when swallowed are liable to set up inflammation, and have even been known to cut through the gizzard, thus causing death. Crushed old mortar or egg-shells may be scattered, over the sand, and cuttle-fish bone should always be given, other moulting will be retarded and nesting hens will produce soft or shell-less eggs. Any of the better kinds of insectivorous foods con- taining egg and ants' eggs will be found beneficial to many of the Finches and will be used for feeding the young by most of them, but many of the Grassfinches appear to bring up their families upon seed, green fly (plant lice), or such small insects as they may be able to capture; the Mannikins, which are to all intents and purposes dull-coloured Grassfinches,_ have leen known to use gentles for rearing their young, of cour.si-, in addition to partly-digested seed. Fruit is neci- for most Parrots, as well as the majority of soft-food eaters. A mealworm or caterpillar, once or twice every day, should be given to all soft-billed birds to Car- dinals, Weavers, Buntings, and the few Waxbills which will eat them ; also insects of various kinds, when pro- curable, and spiders ; and for Warblers, Thrushes, and Starlings, small earth-worms mixed with garden mould in a saucer. Lastly, during the breeding season some form of egg-bread, sweet biscuit, or Madeira cake will be found useful. If possible, it is important that only birds in good health should be purchased, and therefore it is best to obtain them from a reliable importer. If you have any doubt as to the perfect health of a bird, do not turn it loose in any aviary until that doubt is set at rest ; for enteritis, asthma, and many other diseases to which freshly imported or ill-conditioned birds are liable are infectious, and if introduced into a com- munity may cause serious losses. When, in spite of all care and attention, a bird falls ill there is seldom much chance of completely restoring it to health, and therefore I shall not waste space in repeating the innumerable remedies usually recom- mended as almost infallible cures for every ache and pain to which the feathered, family is subject. At the same time, asthma and egg-binding, when taken in time, are usually easy to cure. For the former a iVw drops of glycerine stirred into the drinking-water every day for a fortnight is the best remedy ; but be careful not to overdo the dose, or the result, according to the late Mr. Abrahams, is likely to prove fatal; the dose for Finches is eight drops to a wineglassful of water ; for Thrushes or birds of that general size, ten drops ; for the larger Parrots, which do not drink more than once or twice a day, a teaspoonful in the ordinary parrot-tin ; gum arabic dissolved in the water is a very safe remedy, but not so effectual ; many bird-keepers give both combined. For simple colds and sneezing fits a little diluted glyco-thymoline used as a nasal d is excellent. Before using these remedies it is always well to give a mild purgative, five grains of Epsom .salts for one day in the drinking-water for Finches, an in- creased dose or a little tasteless castor oil for the larger birds ; after the cure also it is best to strengthen the patient by giving a little iron in some form or other. For egg-binding apply a little sweet oil with a feather to the vent, and put one drop into the beak, then hold the bird over the steam from a jug of hot water for a quarter of an hour, wrap it up in warm flannel, and place it in a covered cage near ths fire. In only one instance out of many have I succeeded in curing a bird of inflammation of the bowels by THRUSHES. strictly following the method usually recommended, and even then the patient was left so weak that, al- though for a day or two it even recovered its song, it almost immediately caught cold and died of pneumonia. Even the heroic method of treatment, though rarely suc- cessful, is occasionally more satisfactory; on several occasions I have adde"d a year or more to the life of a "bird by reducing its temperature with a- syringe, and once lengthened the life of an Indigo Finch for two years by picking it up when in a dying condition in the corner of my bird-room and turning it out into the winter frosts of my outside aviary ; at the same time I do not advocate this treatment it is kill or cure, and usually the former. Scurvy, a nasty and dangerous disease, I once cured in the case of a Persian Bulbul by increasing the amount of fruit and green-meat in its daily food ; probably at- tention to diet might arrest this disease in other birds. Imperfect moulting generally arises from want of nour- ishing food and cuttlefish bone, and to chills contracted through insufficient exercise or draught. Wounds should be anointed with vaseline. Broken legs, unless the frac- ture is a clean one, are less likely to inflame if com- pletely severed with a pair of sharp-pointed scissors ; Tout a simple fracture may be bound up in splints made by splitting up a goose-quill. In order to prevent deaths resulting from quarrels, it is necessary to avoid mixing up birds of unequal strength and uncertain tempers. An aviary for Wax- bills and Mannikins may also contain Bichenos, or Zebra Finches, also Gouldian Finches, a Combassou, and several Grey Singing Finches, with many other little birds of about the same size, but not Cutthroats or any larger birds. The smaller Parrakeets may sometimes be kept together, but not with other birds. Blue Robins and Pekin Nightingales, though very amiable so far as I have found (but not so in the experience of some bird- keepers, who complain that they seize tiny birds by wing or leg and swing them about to the danger of both life and limb), should not be associated together or with any birds which are breeding ; for, like our English Ch'affinch and Brambling, they are inveterate robbers of eggs. As a rule, it is better not to keep British and foreign birds in the same aviary ; but Siskins, Gold- finches, Linnets, Bullfinches, and Reed-Bantings may safely be associated with the more sturdy of the small foreign Finches, as also most of the British Chats and Warblers. Of the larger British birds the Song Thrush and Redwing are the safest, and I have kept them for two years in succession with Blue Robins. Cardinals of any species, Parrots, and the larger Parrakeets are best kept separate, and for breeding purposes one pair only can be safely put into an aviary. In addition to the penny nest-bags sold to Canary "breeders, foreign birds should be supplied with plenty of hay, coarse willow-fibre, roots, wood-moss, and soft feathers ; the moss can be obtained in any damp wood or can be purchased from a florist, and the willow- fibre is generally sold at fancy repositories for filling fire-grates. CHAPTER II. THRUSHES (TurcUdgs). This family of birds includes not only the typical Thrushes (Turdincf) which are represented by our Mis- sel Thrush, Song Thrush, Redwing, FieldfaVe, Black- bird, Ring Ouzel, the Chats, Robins, and Nightingales, but also the Warblers (Syli'iince), and Hedge Accentors {Accentor ince). It thus covers most of the best European songsters, and some of the most charming of imported cagebirds. The true Thrushes should be fed upon a good in- sectivorous focd mixed with stale household bread- crumbs and slightly damped, also small fruits, insects of various kinds in all stages, centipedes, spiders and worms ; in feeding Nightingales and the more delicate Warblers the breadcrumbs should be omitted, a little powdered biscuit being preferable, unless already con- tained in the food ; and before going any further I would insist emphatically upon the necessity for both ants' eggs and yolk of egg in all insectivorous mixtures until an ingredient as nutritious as egg has been dis- covered as a substitute for it ; even then, unless the birds themselves showed a preference for this hitherto undiscovered article, I would recommend owners of birds to consider their captives' taste in this matter, for we know that yolk of egg is a favourite food of many birds both British and foreign, and that not a f:w seek the raw material in the nests of other birds, thus proving it to be a natural focd. Many of the Warblers and other small Thrushes seem uncertain in their liking for fruit, but most (if not all) insectivorous birds ^occa- sionally swallow seed whole ; I have not seen a Night- ingale or a Warbler do this, that I can remember, but true Thrushes, Robins, Chats, and especially Accentors eat seed freelv at times. The typical'Thrushes appear to have been more freely imported into Germany than into England, possibly be- cause song, apart from plumage, has in the past ap- pealed more to Teutons than Britons ; there is no doubt that all who take pleasure in our British Thrushes should find those of the New World and the Far East equally interesting. As I have pointed out elsewhere, the males of these birds are larger than the females, with narrower skulls and longer and more slender bills. True Thrushes (Turdince). AMERICAN WOOD THRUSH (Turdus mustelinus.) Upper surface grey-yellowish brown to cinnamon, middle of head more ruddy ; lores white ; sides of head streaked with white ; rump olive-greenish ; flights and wing-coverts brown with dull rust-yellow outer mar- gins"; under wing-coverts white; tail feathers greyish brown with olive-greenish wash and narrow dull yellow outer margins ; body below white marked with triangular or rounded blackish spots; chin pure white; sides of throat towards chin with a dark spotted moustachial stripe ; breast washed with dull yellow ; abdomen and under tail-coverts pure white; bill dark brown, _ the base and inner margin of under mandible yellowish ; eyes brown ; feet yellow. Female noticeably smaller than male, according to Dr. Baird, yellower on underparts. Inhabits North America. In its wild life this Thrush is said to prefer wooded lowlands in the vicinity of water, and, although some- what shy of human habitations, it has been met with not far from buildings, in gardens and groves. It is a migratory bird, appearing in the States from the end of April to the middle of May, the males probably arriving first. The return migration is said to take place in September. It is much confined to dense scrub, its presence therein being indicated by its re- sounding flute-like cries e-o-lie or hallolih, tuniu-tu-ku, and the sharp tack or tucketucketucketuck, which is pro- bably an alarm-call. It sings high up in the top or on a projecting branch of a tree, and its performance has received the highest praise. It is eaid to be characterised by fulness, variety, and purity of its 10 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. tones, variability of phrases, and solemnity of sound. The song is continued almost without intermission from break of day until late in the evening, the only brief interval for rest being about midday. Nests may be found from the beginning of June, generally placed low down upon a densely-twigged stock or overhang- ing branch of an old tree, also in a dense thorn-bush, or, rarely, on the stump of a tree. The nest is like that of the Migratory Thrush, but the cavity is sometimes smoothed over with black earth and lined with twigs and rootlets. The eggs and period of incubation are described as similar to those of its allies. When first caught, this Wood Thrush is said to be very wild, and some examples remain so for a con- siderable time, while others soon become tame and confiding. It sings in captivity from the end of Feb- ruary well into July, but it must be noted that in a cage many cocks will only sing very little, and some not at all ; particularly in a crowded cage will they not sing. They must be always caged alone, and even then many cocks only utter their call e-p-lie, e-o-lie. This being the case, it is hardly surprising that this Thrush has not become a favourite cage-bird even in Germany, but as an inhabitant for a large garden aviary it should be charming. MIGRATORY THRUSH (Turdus migratorius). Above olive-grey, top and sides of the head black, chin and throat white streaked with black ; eyelids, and a spot above the eye anteriorly, white ; under- parts and inside of the wings, yellowish ohestnut- brown ; the under tail-coverts and thighs, white ; the feathers, leaden-greyish at base ; wings and tail, dark brown, more or less edged with ashy ; outermost tail-feathers white-tipped ; bill yellow ; the culmen and tip dusky ; base yellow ; eyes brown ; feet blackish. Female altogether paler, top and sides of head browner, throat whiter. The young bird is said to be barred above with blackish, the throat white, bounded by a brown stripe running downward from the angle of the bill, rest of under-surface rust yellow, with blackish bars ; bill and feet blackish-brown. Inhabits North America and southward to Ecuador. According to J. G. Cooper, the nest of this species " is built at various heights on trees, and sometimes, as if relying fully on the nobler traits of humanity, in a shed, stable, or even in a sawmill close to the constantly working and noisy machinery." He says that he has also found one in the cleft of a split tree which had been broken down by the wind. " Nuttall relates instances of their building near a blacksmith's anvil ; on the stern timbers of a vessel that was being built at Portsmouth (N.H.); on a harrow hung up in a cart-shed, where three men were at work, and where they took refuge after the destruction of their first nest." " The eggs are four or five, dark bluish green, and unspotted. The nest is composed outside of roots, shavings, etc., then a layer of leaves, moss, and grass, cemented by mud, inside of which is a lining of soft, dry grass." " The Robin's song* is loud and sweet, but not much varied. Though usually uttered in spring, it occa- sionally is heard during other seasons, especially in fine weather, when the musician, having fed heartily in the garden or field, mounts to the top of a tree, and returns thanks for human hospitality in the most pleasing melody." "Their food consists chiefly of insects, especially worms " (a curious statement when one considers that these are not insects !), " for which they hop over grassy fields in the spring, watching and listening for the * This Thrush is known in the United States a& the American Kobin. gnawing grub or earthworm driven to the surface by rain, occasionally seizing one with a quick motion of the head, swallowing it whole, or picking it to pieces. They also feed much on berries, especially during winter, when they eat those of the Madrona (Arbutus) and even the bitter fruit of the dogwood (Cornus). "Kept in cages they become very familiar, and learn to imitate various tunes and noises. They live some- times for many years in captivity, and have been made so domestic as to be allowed the free range of the house and surrounding ground*." (Geological Survev of California : " Ornithology," Vol. I., p. 9, 1870.) The song has been likened to that of the European Blackbird, but Dr. Russ says this is only true so far as the mere tone is concerned ; that both have the same splendid whistle, only the song of the Blackbird is more sustained and varied ; that of the Migratory Thrush shorter and more monotonous. DWARF THRUSH (Turdus nanus). Upper surface light olive-brown, becoming redder on upper tail-coverts and tail, wings also slightly washed with reddish ; under-surface white, the breast and some- times throat slightly buffish ; sides of throat and breast spotted with more or less triangular dusky spots, lateral spots at back of breast more rounded ; sides washed with pearl-grey ; bill brown, the base of lower mandible yellowish flesh-coloured ; eyes brown ; feet pale brown. Inhabits North America. Very rarely imported into the German bird market, but possibly not into that of Great Britain. Mr. Cooper gives the following account of the wild life : " I saw but few of this species in the Colorado valley, where they seem to remain only for the winter, as I observed none after April 1. Most of them winter in the same parts of the State in which they spend the summer, chiefly south of San Francisco. They are shy and timid, preferring the dark, shady thickets, and rarely venturing far from them, ex'-ept in the twilight, their large eyes being suited for seeing in dark places. They feed chiefly on the ground, running rapidly, and searching for insects among the leaves and herbage, but not scratching for them. Probably, also, they feed on berries, like others of the family. " About April 25th they begin to sing near San Diego, the song consisting of a few ringing notes. ... Their usual note of alarm is a single chirp, sometimes loud and ringing, repeated and answered by others for a long distance. " At Santa Cruz, on the 1st of June, I found several of their nests, all built in thickets under the shade of cotton- wood trees, each about 5ft. above the ground, and con- taining eggs in various stages of hatching, from two to four in number, the smaller number probably laid after the destruction of a first set. The -nests were built of dry leaves, root-fibres, grass and bark, without mud, lined with decayed leaves ; measuring outside 4in. each way, inside 2.50 wide and 0.20 deep. The eggs measured 0.90 by 0.70, and were pale bluish green, speckled with cinnamon-brown, chiefly at the larger end. " In 1866, at Santa Cruz, I found nests with eggs about May 20th, one on a horizontal branch not more than a foot from the ground ; another on an alder tree 15ft. up. After raising their young they all left the vicinity of the town, probably for the moister mountains, where food was more plenty at the end of the dry season" T.c., pp. 4, 5. Dr. Russ regards this as a mere varietal form of Pallas' Thrush. He says that to his knowledge E. von Schlechtendal once possessed a specimen belonging to this form, and that in the course of about twenty years he has only seen single examples in the possession of THRUSHES. 11 the dealer Schobel, of Berlin, at the Berlin Aquarium, in the Hamburg and the Berlin Zoological Gardens. It does not appear in the ninth edition of our Zoological Society's list. SWAINSON'S THRTTSH (Turdus sivainsoni). Upper surface olive-green ; orbital region, cheeks, sides of head, throat, and breast rusty yellowish ; sides of neck and upper breast with dusky roundish spots ; sides of body less spotted, and washed with brownish ; rest of under surface white ; bill dark brown, yellowish at base : eyes brown ; feet yellowish grey. Habitat, North America. Mr. Cooper says of this species, which he calls the " Olive Thrush " : " Formerly supposed to be confined to Eastern North America, but of late years found farther and farther to the west. This Thrush breeds in the far north, more abundantly about Slave Lake, the Lower Mackenzie, and the Upper Yukon Rivers. Like its congeners, it is an admirable singer, enlivening the woods with its melody. The nest is placed on a low tree or bush, and the eggs are blue, with numerous reddish spots" T.c., p. 7. According to Ridgway, the song resembles that of the American Wood Thrush, but is not so loud, yet higher and silvery in sound. Dr. Russ quotes as follows from Nehrling: "A con- fiding pair, which I kept in a spacious aviary, chased one another playfully for an hour at a time whilst they uttered their long-drawn melodious call-note. The hunted one hopped on the ground, stooped and kept her wings in fluttering vibration ; the other stayed on the perch, behaving in the same way while it eagerly called " ; from which Dr. Russ concludes that both were females, yet this seems not to have been the case, since the account continues : " Only when one keeps it by itself in a roomy cage and carefully tends it does Swainson's Thrush sing fully and beautifully. In the course of years I have only had two which have sung out thus. One notices one thing about the song that it is not suited to a small room ; resounding, full of variety, it sounds extremely charming, and one can only properly judge of and appreciate it when one hears it in the forest." Dr. Russ observes : " With us it comes only singly from time to time in the bird market, yet it has appeared several times at the great bird shows in Berlin ; more rarely it has occurred in the Zoological Gardens. The Berlin Aquarium formerly had it several times. Since the years 1878-79 it has only been very sparsely imported by the businesses of Reiche and Ruhe. The price varied considerably from 8 marks (shillings), 15 marks, up to 30 marks per head." Dr. Russ also quotes the Grey-cheeked or Alicia's Thrush (Turdus alicice) as having been far more freely imported than the preceding ; but he considers it would save trouble to consider them together. He says that, according to Baird, it is distinguished by its deeper and purer green upper surface, clearly ash-grey sides of head, Mid white instead of yellow orbital rings ; and, according to Nehrling also, by its longer and more slender bill, longer wings, and greater size. Neither of these Thrushes is mentioned in the ninth edition of the Zoological Society's list, which is fairly good evidence of their rarity in the English bird market. TAWNY THRUSH (Turdus fuscescens). Entire upper surface rusty reddish-brown ; top of head and tail faintly tinted with orange ; loral streak white ; ear-coverts ash-grey ; flights and tail-feathers brown, edged with rust-reddish on the outer webs ; fl'ghts below white, washed with rust-reddish at the base ; under wing-coverts dull rust-red ; throat and upper breast pale brownish yellow, the latter marked with small triangular dark brownish spots ; lower breast feebly spotted with grey ; rest 01 underparts white, with the sides spotted with smoky olive-brown ; upper mandible of bill brown; lower mandible clear yellowish grey ; eyes brown ; feet yellowish grey. Female slightly smaller than male, otherwise very similar. Habitat, North America. This is a widely- distributed species, but a shy bird inhabiting dense woods. When met with it is generally singly or in pairs, and even in the migratory season only in small flocks. It is common in the woods of Wisconsin and most numerous during the migratory season in Illinois. It appears in the Northern States scarcely before the middle of May, and disappears again in September. Like all the other Thrushes, its food consists of insects and worms, with the various berries which are to be met with in the American woods, especially those of the magnolia and, later, of various hollies. In the middle States many of these Thrushes remain through- out the winter, notably in the woods of Florida, but most of them emigrate to Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, and even to South America. The nest is built at the beginning of June, always near water of some kind, close to the ground among young shoots or in a dense thorn-bush, well concealed, and so placed that it is sheltered on one side. On a layer of dry foliage it is constructed of small twigs, thin sprays of hemlock, plant stalks, straws, fragments of yine-bark and bast intermixed with moss, and the cup is lined with bents, bast, and long ihairs of beasts, but with no admixture of mud or rotten wood. It is a large structure, but not very neat or artistic. The laying consists of from four to five uniformly clear greenish-blue or emerald green eggs, very rarely spotted. The song of this Thrush is most highly praised ; indeed Russ says : " Amongst songsters more highly valued than most other foreign Thrushes.'' Nuttall syllables the song thus : " vihu, vihu,^ wich, wich, wichu, ivichu, ivilile, wilile, wielill, wililill," and says that one must be careful not to conclude that there is any kind of monotony in this stanza. At times it is said to utter a mewing or bleating cry. Its call-note is jihu, and sharply juit, juit. According to Nehrling, the cry of warning is a resounding tschiup and a penetrating zup, the call-note wait. This bird was first brought alive to Germany in 1873, when the dealer A. Schobel, of Berlin, imported it, and, after that, C. Reiche, of Alfeld, introduced it into the- trade on several occasions in the course of years, but always singly; but it appears not to have found its- way into the Zoological Gardens of London, Amster- dam, or Berlin, and naturally no opportunity has been given to attempt to breed it in captivity. FALKLAND-ISLAND THRUSH (Turdus falklandicus]. Head blackish, remainder of upper surface mort olivaceous brown; rump and upper tail-coverts grey- brown ; primaries brownish black, the outer webs with narrow paler borders ; wing-coverts and secondaries olivaceous brown ; all the flights below ash-grey ; under wing-coverts pale brownish rust-coloured ; throat whitish, with dusky longitudinal streaks ; remainder of under surface clear rust-brownish, with the centre of abdomen and vent brighter; under tail-coverts, brownish, with whitish shaft-streaks; bill yellowish horn-grey ; eyes dark brown ; feet yellowish grey. The female is similar, but slightly duller in colouring. The young has the underparts of a rusty-yellowish fawn-colour and fawn with darker spots. Inhabits southern South America. This rarely-imported Thrush is said to be tolerably 12 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. abundant at Valparaiso, and also further in the in- terior in small thickets and copses. 0. L. Landbeck says of it: "In the Cordillera this Thrush does not extend higher than the wooded region ; it lives in woods and. shrubberies, by preference where it can get plenty of orchard-fruits, which in summer form its chief article of food, whilst at the same time it also eats insects and, especially in winter, eagerly seeks for worms. As a very lively bird it has in its bearing a great resemblance to our European Blackbird. At the pairing-season it sings zealously quite early in the morn- ing and until it is quite dark in the evening. The song .is variable, entirely differing in individual birds, tolerably pleasing, and it might hold a middle posi- tion between those of its European relative the S-ong Thrush and Blackbird, yet it is inferior to each of these European songsters, inasmuch as it is neither so lull and powerful as the Blackbird's song nor so much modu- lated as the song of the Song-thrush. The call-note is a protracted groog (probably in English grercrg or i/r< ITIJ). The song may be rendered somewhat in the following words: tiwi, toi/o, grohg, hoi/i:li . titlrli, djiiJti. fi'ii. il jiff if. j<>. djiiff. zih, troJi, fiirich. j'Kj'tf, j'"J' fi . hoyeJi, li'it/vli. ftodich, jatie, etc. As, however, there is no better singing Thrush here, it is so beloved by the Chilians that they keep it in cages in thousands. It is the pet bird of the poor, as they can easily obtain it from the nest and rear it without trouble. This Thrush, although it nests in numbers in the vicinity of human dwellings, moves about in gardens, and is rarely afraid of men, nevertheless rarely becomes tame in captivity, but always remains shy and nervous. Its movements are quick and vigorous. The nest bears the closest re- semblance to that of the European Blackbird, and even the eggs resemble those of this species. At least twice in summer it lays five to six eggs. The nest is usually situated in the gardens in bushes and on all kinds of fruit-trees, 'by preference in thick rose-hedges and orange-trees. It does much mischief to the fruit, par- ticularly to the sweet cherries, figs, and the like." Although said to be so common a cage-bird in Chili, Dr. Russ speaks of it as one of the rarest species brought home alive. Mr. L. Ruhe, of Alfeld, imported a con- signment in 1889, one of which Dr. Russ secured. It has been exhibited at the Berlin exhibition of the <( Ornis " Society, has once appeared at our Zoological Gardens, and also at those of Hamburg and Berlin. RED-BELLIED THRUSH (Turdus rufivmtris}. Upper surface olive-grey, head greyer ; throat reddish white, streaked with dark brown as far as the chest ; upper chest washed with greyish olive, but the rest of under surface deep rust-red, under wing-coverts paler red ; upper mandible dark horn-grey (" brownish-yellow " according to Sclater and Hudson), the tip greyish horn- yellow, under mandible clearer ; eyes brown : feet brownish horn-grey. Female much more fawn coloured, greyer on back and under surface. Young plumage : Crown with every feather pale edged ; feathers of wing- coverts with rust-red shaft-stripes and tips ; chin and front of throat pale yellow, spotted with pale brown. Habitat, South-east Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and La Plata. According to Hudson, this is a noisy, quarrelsome ftird : "It inhabits forests, runs on the ground in search of food, and when approached darts away with loud chuckling notes, flying close to the ground. " These birds are also often seen pursuing each other through the trees with loud harsh screams. The song has a taint resem- blance to that of the English Song Thrush, being com- posed of a variety of notes uttered in the same discon- nected manner, with frequent pauses ; but it is, both in sweetness and strength, inferior to that of the English bird. As a rule, this Thrush sings concealed in a thick bush or tree. " The nest is deep, well made, plastered inside with mud, and concealed in the centre of a large bush or low tree. The eggs are four, pale blue in colour, and thickly spotted with brown." (Arg. Rep., 1, p. 3). According to Dr. Russ, this is also one of the rarest Thrushes in the bird market ; it has, however, been received by Miss Hagenbeck, Mr. Mieth, and Mr. Maageldortt' in Germany, and has appeared in our Zoological Gardens.* DIJSKY THRUSH (Turd us Icurrimrfas). Upper surface olive-grey, with a wash of brown on head and neck ; throat white, more or less streaked with brown, a clear white neck-patch; middle of abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; remainder of under surface pale grey ; under wing-coverts and inner margins of wing-feathers fulvous ; bill yellow, upper mandible somewhat brownish ; eyes brown ; feet horn-grey ('' hazel," according to Hudson). The female is rather smaller, duller in all her colours ; throat pale yellow, with paler streaks and no white neck-patch ; middle of abdomen and vent yellowish. Young only distinguishable by its paler colouring, the absence of the white neck-patch, as well as by the darker brown bill and darker feet. Habitat, Eastern South America, from Cayenne to Buenos Ayres. According to Hudson, this "is quite common in the woods along the Plata River. It is a shy forest bird, a fruit and insect eater, abrupt in its motions, runs rapidly on the ground with beak elevated, and at intervals pauses and shakes its tail, pugnacious in temper, strong on the wing, its flight not being over the trees, but masked by their shadows. It can always be easily dis- tinguished, even at a distance, from other species by its peculiar short, metallic chirp a melodious sound indi- cating alarm or curiosity, and utteied before flight in contrast to the harsh screams and chuckling notes of cither Thrushes in this district. " Whether it is a fine singer or not within the Tropics I am unable to say, its vocal powers having received no attention from the naturalists Avho have observed it. With us in the temperate climate of Buenos Ayres, where it commences to sing in September, it has the finest song of any bird I know, excepting only .Miin-< triuntf.^ Like the English Song Thrush, but unlike its near neighbours the Red-bellied Thrush and the Magel- lanic Thrush, it perches on the summit of a tree to sing. Its song is, however, unlike that of the English bird, which is so fragmentary and, as Mr. Barrows describes it, made up of 'vocal attitudes and poses.' The two birds differ also in voice as much as in manner. The strains of the Dusky Thrush are poured forth in a con- tinous stream, with all the hurry and freedom of the Skylark's song ; but though so raj idly uttered, eveiy note is distinct and clear, and the voice singularly sweet and far-reaching. At intervals in the song there recurs a two-syllabled note twice repeated, unlike in sound any other bird-music I have heard, for it is purely metallic, and its joyous bell-like ' te-ling, te-ling,' always comes like a delightful surprise to the listener, being in strange contrast with the prevailing tone. " The song is altogether a very fine one, its peculiar charm being that it seems to combine two opposite * Dr. Russ enumerated the White-throated Thrush (T. al as a well-known Brazilian cage-bird, but he says it only comes by chance and singly into the market ; indeed, he seems never to have met with it. It is related to T. rvfiventris. t The White-banded Mockiiijr-binl, a very beautiful species inhabiting Paraguay, the Argentine Republic and Bolivia. THRUSHES. 13 qualities of bird-music, plaintiveness, and joyousness, in some indefinable manner. " I have never heard this species sing in a cage or anywhere near a human habitation ; and it is probably owing to its recluse habits that its excellent song has not been hitherto noticed. Azara perhaps mistook the song of this species for that of Turdus rufiventrisa, very inferior vocalist. " The nest is made in the centre of a thick bush or tree 6ft. or 8ft. above the ground, and is a deep, elaborate structure, plastered inside with mud, and lined with soft, dry grass. The eggs are four in number, oblong, the ground-colour light blue, abundantly marked with reddish-brown spots." Dr. Russ says that as this, " like unhappily all the Thrushes, is only imported seldom and singly, or at best in pairs, I was very eager to be able to thoroughly observe the pair in my possession." It would seem, however, that he is not speaking in his own person, for he continues (Mr. Frank has written the following) : " The birds were quite tame with me, and to all appear- ance thoroughly healthy, so that I hoped they would soon proceed to breed. They had a perfect propensity for bathing and also liked their food moist ; they carried quantities of it to their drinking-water in order to wet it. I received them under the name of Brazilian Mock-Thrushes, but they did not appear to deserve this title, as the song of the male was insig- nificant, and, so far as I could ascertain, it never made any attempt to copy the song of other birds. The male s-ang fairly freely, and the song, though both soft and incapable of being highly esteemed, was yet pleasing. Unfortunately the female of my pair soon 'died, so that I was successful in recording no attempt at breeding." Dr. Russ furthermore says that Mrs. Albrecht, who kept a male for a long time, did not think much of its song, but considered it quite poor, and Dr. Russ him- elf came to the same conclusion. Now, although I have elsewhere pointed out that Mr. Hudson often speaks in the highest praise of the songs, even of such birds as the Grey Cardinals, it must in fairness be borne in mind that, in the present instance, he himself says that he has never heard it sing in a cage or near human habitations, so that perhaps it never sings properly in captivity. It has been represented in our Gardens. WHITE-BELLIED THRUSH (Turdus alUventris}. In aspect and character it resembles the White- throated Thrush, but differs as follows : The brighter colour of the head and nape, the longer tail, coloured like the rest of the upperside, the weaker, less distinct streaks by the under-mandible and the throat, the absence of a pure white unstreaked throat-patch, the deep rust-red on the under wing-coverts. Its chief colouring is grey, washed with olivaceous brown on back and wings, the throat is streaked white, and the abdo- men whitish grey ; the under wing-coverts are reddish yellow, so that the bird, if it lifts its wings, produces rather a startling effect ; the large eyes are of a brilliant deep brown. I take this description from Russ. Habitat, South America. This Thrush seems to have a wide distribution ; according to Burmeister it occurs over the primeval forest region of the northern coast tracts of Brazil, at Bahia, Para, and Guiana ; and von Berlepsch records it also from New Granada. It lives in the low scrub of young saplings, as also in the thickets on the steppes. Mangelsdorff says that they nest upon the heights near the mountain borough of New Freiburg. He thus describes the song as he heard it uttered by the wild bird: "The song is horribly bungling, a chopped-up chirping, properly hardly to be called a song, although it is perfectly recognisable as of the Thrush character." Most Thrush-lovers will regard this as a cruel libel upon their favourites, but I can well imagine that a loud-voiced House Sparrow trying to sing like our Song Thrush might irritate a musical person. We forgive the staccato repetitions of our native friend, because his notes are clear and joyous, but if they were nothing better than a disjointed chirping I doubt if we shoukl do so. Mr. C. von Schlechtendal, who received a specimen of this bird from Miss Hagenbeck, describes the song a/5 " till, tui, diliih, diliih, diliih " ; hardly what I should have characterised as a disjointed chirping, but not unlike the early conversations of Sparrows, if we convert it into its English equivalents thus tewi, tewi f delee, dclee, delee (usually written telee, I think). Schlechtendal says that, although far inferior to that of our Song Thrush, he wa^ able to endure the song, because the bird was confiding towards himself ; no doubt one does forgive a good deal to a friendly pet. This bird also has been seen in our Zoological Gardens ; it is a rarely imported bird, and very little seems to be known about its wild life. Burmeister says nothing about the nest or eggs. SORRY THRUSH (Turdus tristis}. The whole upper surface is clear olive-brown, the head and tail washed with bluish ash, the brown throat-streaks less distinct than in T. leucomelas, and less close and numerous ; breast and sides of abdomen clear bright yellowish brown, as also the under man- dible, which is also shorter, as the wings and tail are longer than in the aforementioned species. Habitat, Mexico, Honduras, etc. I have been unable to obtains any information about this species beyond the fact that it has been represented in the living collection of our London Zoological Society. It is, of course, probable that its wild life would not differ greatly from that of T. leucomelas, and that both nest and eggs would be of a similar character. From his remarks I should judge that Dr. Russ never possessed T. tristis, and was not acquainted with any- body who had. GRAY'S THRUSH (Turdus, Grayi). Entire upper surface dull olivaceous brown, flighte dark brown, the outer webs with pale borders, broader borders of inner webs faint reddish yellow ; below ash- grey, the inner webs broadly bordered with fawn- yellow, large and small under wing-coverts dull orange- yellow ; tail feathers blackish brown, indistinctly marked with dark and light bars ; breast clear fawn- brownish, abdomen, sides and under tail-coverts clear brownish yellow ; bill greenish grey, the tomium and tip lighter (in winter entirely grey with the exception of a yellowish tip) ; eyes brown with yellowish orbital ring ; feet greenish horn-grey. The female is perhaps slightly duller and smaller. Habitat, Central America to Colombia. According to Dr. Frantzius this is one of the most abundant and widely distributed of the Costa Rican Thrushes. " I met it both near the seashore and at a height of 6,000 ft. During the dry season one seldom sees it, but in March, shortly before the commencement of the rainy season, one hears its characteristic Thrush note in the hedges ; with the beginning of the rainy season, however, when the breeding-time arrives, its monotonous song, which one recognises from early morn- ing to late in the evening above every other wild thing, becomes irritating in the extreme. The Costa u FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. Ricans says, when it utters its loud note at the com- mencement of the rainy season, it cries that rain is coming. Its favourite food consists during the dry season of the small fruits of various wild species of tigs, which it finds in extraordinary quantities on the large trees of the genus Ficus, which are always covered with foliage." The nest is built in hedges and other low shrubbery in the months of April and May ; it is formed of slender twigs, rootlets and fibres, and lined with still finer roots and bents. The clutch consists of three eggs with a pale brownish green ground tint, spotted and speckled with red-brown, most densely at the larger end, where they form a confluent mas*. According to Mr. A. Boucard (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1878, p. 50), this species is very abundant at San Jose during the fruit season, and is particularly fond of a email fruit called " ceresa." He says: "I have two eggs of this bird, found in one nest built in the centre of an alee growing on the road. They are green, with rufous spots." According to Russ, this species is more frequently imported than the other Thrushes. He says : " I received a male from Mr. L. Ruhe, in Alfeld, and am therefore able to describe it from the living bird. Mr. H. Burghard, of Halle, possessed a Gray's Thrush for a long time, and says it always keeps in good plumage and clean in a cage, also it is not so stupidly nervous as other Thrushes ; its moult is got through quickly and satisfactorily. The call-note resembles that of our resident Greenfinch, and sounds like schwoinz, only with the distinction that the tone is deeper and much weaker. This Thrush feeds greedily upon all kinds of fruit. It is an unusually industrious songster, even during its change of plumage. The song resembles that of the Song Thrush, yet is much deeper and weaker in tone, for which reason it is preferable as a chamber bird." After what Dr. Frantzius says about the irritating character of the song of this species, and Mr. Burghard as to its resemblance to that of the Song Thrush, except- ing in its deeper and weaker tone, it is rather sur- prising to continue Dr. Russ's account and note how highly it is praised by Sclater (presumably Dr. Sclater), and to see an effort later on (in imitation of Beckstein's attempt to record the song of the Nightingale) to reduce the whole performance of Gray's Thrush to words run- ning into twenty-seven separate phrases, with appro- priate comments'. One would think so varied a song must be the result of the carefully recorded utterances of several individuals, for if not the statement of Mr. Burghard must be a rank libel, and that of Frantzius a bfasphemy only possible to a man with no ear for music. Blackbirds or Ouzels (Merula) GREY-WINGED BLACKBIRD (Me nil a lionUjmil). Male, above black, with a large whitish-bordered dust-grey patch, formed by the greater coverts and outer webs of the middle flights, on the wing; under surface slightly paler, with greyish mottlings on the sides somewhat after the fashion of the Ring Ouzel. The female is brownish ashy, paler below, the wing patch red-brown with whitish borders ; bill, orbital ring and feet orange-yellow ; eyes brown. According to Jerdon, " found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas, keeping generally to an eleva- tion from 5,QCOft. to 8,000ft. It is tolerably common, but rather shy, and does not show it.-elf in the open or in gardens so much as the Neilgherry Blackbird, and its song is, I think, hardly equal to that the Neilgherry bird. I obtained the nest at Darjeeling, made of twigs, roots, and moss, and with three or four eggs of a pale blue-green, with numerous light brown spots." ("Birds of India," Vol. I., pp. 525-6.*) Formerly this was an extremely rare bird in the trade, our Zoological Gardens being, I believe, the first to possess it ; even now I think the only specimens in the country are those hand-reared and imported by Mr. E. W. Harper about the year 1902, of which he gave me one specimen on February 13th, 1904. When the winter was ovi-r. Mr. Allen Silver having kindly obtained for me a healthy female English Black- bird, I turned the pair into a "large garden aviary in the hope of breeding hybrids from them, but owing to the interference of an English cock Blackbird, which persistently hung about the aviary and fought the Indian bird through the wirework all through the summer and up to the end of February, 1905, no attempt was made at breeding : however, with a little trouble we caught and caged the offender (which makes a very nice song-bird). About June 10th or llth my birds built high up in the most sheltered corner of the aviary, the structure being formed of hay and twigs compacted with a mixture of mud and dead leaves, and lined with finer hay. I have no doubt that in the first day after the hatch- ing of the three eggs the young were fed almost entirely upon yolk of egg selected by the cock bird from the soft food mixture, for they must have hatched out quite a day before I discovered the fact and began to supply the parents with abundance of worms and cockroaches ; even after that the egg was always picked out and carried up to the young before the old birds helped themselves. I first heard the voices of the young on July 3rd, and on the 6th I Avas unfor- tunately away from home until the evening, so that tvor.ms were not supplied so frequently, and in con- sequence two of the young died ; the third was com- pletely I'eared, but proved to be a hen, and almost of a uniform olive-brown colour. In 1896 a nest was built upon the top of the previous year's structure, and the hen began to sit on May 31st ; the first youngster was hatched on June 14th, and I had to work hard to supply the birds with worms. As on the previous year, three eggs were laid, all hatched, and on this occasion all were happily reared ; they assumed their adult plumage about October, and proved to be two males and one female, the males black but much browner than either of the Ouzels from which they were bred, especially on the under-parts, and with a red-brown patch on the wing answering to the grey patch of the Grey-winged Ouzel, the bill and orbital ring orange-yellow, but the feet brown nearly as in the English bird. The female was very different from jts sister of the previous year's hatching, being almost like a typical hen Grey- winged Ouzel. When the Grey-winged bird first came into my pos- session it had very little idea of song ; but after a few months spent outside, it sang a very respectable com- bination song, evidently picked up from the Song Thrush, Blackbird, and Wren. The young hybrids do not sing so well, their voices being much harsher. Per- haps with a deterioration in colour due to reversion towards the type from which the two parent stocks have descended", there may be a correlated deterioration in the character of the vocal organs, and a consequent return to a more savage and uncultivated attempt at * I have quoted a fuller account of the nesting-habits from Gates' edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds " in a paper published in The Avicultural Magazine, N.S., Vol. III., pp. 240-7. BLACKBIRDS. 15 YELLOW-FOOTED BLACKBIRD (Merula Aavipes). Above glossy black ; back, rump, upper tail-coverts, abdomen and thighs slightly greyer ; middle of abdomen and tips of under tail-coverts white ; bill brilliant yellow ; eyes reddish amber ; feet of a remarkably bright yellow. The female is dark olivaceous-brown, paler below ; bill brownish yellow. Young more dingy in colouring ; the back, abdomen, and sides leaden-grey. According to von Berlepsch, this bird is confined to the coastal regions of Middle and Southern Brazil. It is a little smaller than the European Blackbird. Bur- meister found it in the woods on the coast near Rio de Janeiro, and also further to the north ; it was not rare at New Freiburg. Paul Mangelsdorff observed it nest- ing on the heights around New Freiburg, and in the autumn he saw it in the lower valleys. Its calls resembled those of the European Blackbird. Prince Wied gives it the credit of being a good songster, but says nothing further respecting it. Von Pelzeln also in like manner says, on the authority of Natterer, that it sings very charmingly, and Mangelsdorff declares that the song of this species was much praised by the owners of two specimens not for sale which he saw in cages. Dr. Russ, on the other hand, who frequently saw an example of the Yellow-footed Blackbird in the shop of W. Mieth, at Berlin, states that neither Mr. Mieth (during the years in which he possessed it) nor he ever heard a song from it, so that he was almost convinced that the species after all could not be a good songster. He says that it was always in excellent plumage, and moulted without difficulty ; but he admits that it was not kept in a very spacious cage, and did not receive sufficient variety in its food quite enough, in my opinion, to account for the bird not feeling cheer- ful enough to sing. Russ observes finally that while we fail to find the Yellow-footed Blackbird up to the present time in the records of nearly all, even of the largest Zoological Gardens, the Amsterdam Garden alone has exhibited it. It is certain that, up to the publication of the ninth edition of its " List of Animals," our London society had not secured it. CHINESE BLACKBIRD {Merula mandarina). Resembles the European Blackbird, excepting that it is considerably larger and distinctly paler on the under- parts ; the bill much stouter. Messrs. La Touche and Rickett published the follow- ing interesting notes on the habits of this Blackbird in The Ibis (Eighth Series, Vol. V., 1905, pp. 42, 43): "A very common resident on the plains,* frequenting gardens and copses, and, like the Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis), always to be found in the vicinity of human dwellings. The nest is placed high up in some tall pine or other big tree. It is built on one of the large boughs in a fork near the extremity of a branch, or in the angle formed by one branch with, another or with the trunk. " The materials used are fine twigs, straw, dry grass, moss, roots, dead leaves, and a variety of odds and ends, such as human hair, paper, etc. These are all plastered together with fine mud in varying quantities, and lined with fine dry grass, roots, and sometimes pine-needles. The amount of mud used is often very considerable. "According to Rickett's observations, the female is the sole architect, the male sitting on a branch near the nest singing, and attacking any birds that approach, especially Crows and Magpies, while he does not hesitate to swoop down at a prowling cat. The young in the nest appear to be fed chiefly by the female, but as SOOP as * In the Province of Fohkien, S.E. China. they leave the nursery the male takes his share in caring for them. Nesting begins in April, and two broods are reared. " The eggs are four or five in number, and, as a rule, ovate, but vary a good deal in shape as well as in colour. Forty-one eggs average 1.18in. by .87in. They are blotched, spotted, or speckled with various shades of red over underlying violet spots. The markings often form a cap, usually at the larger end, but sometimes at the apex. " The ground-colour varies from pale greenish to bluish green, whilst occasionally it is of a reddish tint." In his " Field Notes on the Birds of Chinkiang, Lower Yangtee Basin" (The Ibis, 1906, p. 625), Mr. La Touche says : " The Chinese Blackbird is very common on the plain, but appears to be absent from the low hills and lower country at the back of Chinkiang. The natives rear it in cages, as in South China. It breeds com- monly on the plain from April to July. Fresh eggs were brought to me on April 20, and some nearly fresh on July 11, so that there are two or three broods during the year. A nest taken on June 18 contained six nearly fresh eggs. The nests, as in Fohkien, are built on the boughs of trees, generally at a great height from the ground." Considering that this is a common Chinese cage-bird, it seems strange that it should be so extremely rare in the European bird market. One would suppose that this large Blackbird would be most welcome both for cage and aviary, and would be an interesting species to breed in captivity. Yet Dr. Russ says : " It once arrived at the Gardens of Amsterdam, but otherwise has nowhere come to hand alive." Another species said to be related to our Blackbird, but smaller the Silky-black Blackbird (Merula atroscricea) from Colombia and Ecuador is reported by Russ to have been once received by the dealer H. Fockelmann, of Hamburg, who staged it at the exhibi- tion of the " Ornis " 'Society, in 1887. He gives no notes on its wild life, and I have not discovered any so far. GREY BLACKBIRD (Merula cardis). The male is greyish-black, wings browner ; axillaries slate-grey ; outermost tail-feathers with broad whitish borders to the outer webs ; underparts blackish slate- grey ; middle of breast and abdomen white ; sides with large dark spots ; bill orange-yellow ; feet yellowish horn-grey. Female, olive-brown, every feather edged with greyish-brown ; sides of head, angle of lower- mandible and throat grey-whitish, streaked with brown ; upper breast olivaceous slate-grey, obscurely spotted with dusky ; breast, sides of abdomen, and axillaries, bright chestnut ; the first obscurely spotted with dusky ; middle of breast and abdomen white ; bill brownish grey. Habitat, Japan and China. According to Blakiston and Pryer, this is a common breeding bird at Fujisan, and also occurs in Yezo ; it sings beautifully. The nest is often situated on a tree- stump, but also on branches near to the trunk, and is almost entirely formed of moss. The clutch consists of five greenish or reddish white eggs which are spotted with brown umber. (Cf. Russ, " Fremdl. Weichiutter- fresser," II., p. 73.) Seebohm (" Birds of the Japanese Empire," p. 46) observes : "The Grey Japanese Ouzel is a lowland bird, and breeds abundantly at the base of Fuji-yama. The nest is generally placed in the fork of a small tree over- hanging a stream, and is composed of moss, roots, and dry leaves, with a foundation of mud. It is lined with grass, fine roots, and horsehair (Jouy, Proc. United States Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 277). Eggs in the Pryer col- lection resemble those of the Missel Thrush, but are FOKEIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. slightly smaller. This bird is a fine songster, and is much valued by the Japanese as a cage-bird (Blakiston and Pryer, Trans. As. Soc. Japan, 1882, p. 165). " It leaves Japan in autumn to winter in South China and Hainan. I have been unable to find any evidence in favour of the statement (David and Oustalet, " Ois. Chine," p. 150) that it migrates to the valley of the Amoor in spring." This species has been exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens. GREY-HEADED BLACKBIRD (Mtrula castanea). Male with head, neck, and throat ashy whitish or greyish, the crown dark and brownish ; remainder of plumage light chestnut bay, darker on interscapulars, paler and brighter on under parts ; wings blackish, the tertials, brown-edged, tail blackish, under tail-coverts mingled brown, black and white. Female duller, the head and neck browner, the wings and tail brown, the outermost tail feathers sometimes white-tipped, under tail-coverts brown and white ; bill, orbits and legs yellow ; eyes brown. Habitat, India. Jerdon says that he " procured a few specimens of this Ouzel at Darjeeling, in winter only; and it is not very common there, frequenting open forests." (" Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 527.) In Gates 's Edition of Hume's " Xests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. II., pp. 92-3, we read : " Very little is known of the breeding of the Grey-headed Ouzel. A nest containing five eggs was taken on April 20th near Kotegurh, and Colonel C. H. T. Marshall took a nest at Murree. " The Kotegurh nest was placed in a bank, was 6in. in diameter, and 4in. in height, composed of moss, with a good deal of dead fern in the base of the nest, and only a little earth, and lined with fine grass. The cavity was about 3.5in. in diameter, and 2.75in. in depth." From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : " Two neste in banks, in the beginning of June ; eggs very similar to those of M. boulboul, but somewhat larger, being 1.25in. by 0.8in. Captain Cock got two nests in the Sindh Valley, Kashmir. It is peculiar that this species always breeds in banks. All the Meruline birds breed from about 5..000ft. to 7,000ft. up. " I believe some people say that Merula albocineta and M. castanea are identical. I therefore send a pair of birds of the latter, shot off the nest in full breeding plumage, which may elucidate the matter. They must have two batches in the year, as on the 20th April I got a nest with four eggs just ready to hatch, which must have been laid at the end of March. The nest, too, was at an elevation of nearly 7,000ft.* " The eggs of this species appear to vary very much. What I take to be the typical egg is a somewhat lengthened, at times more or less pyriform, oval a pale green ground, with very little gloss, thickly and boldly mottled and freckled all over with brownish red and pinkish purple. In another type nowhere is more than a pin's point of the ground colour visible, the whole (surface being excessively minutely freckled and speckled with brownish red, underlaid by faint reddish purple clouds and stains. "In length they vary from l.lin. to 1.35in., and in breadth from 0.75in. to 0.88in. Only eight eggs are measured, five from Kotegurh and three from Sona- nuirgh, taken by Captain Cock." This species also has appeared in the London Zoological Gardens. *As Blackbirds hatch in about fourteen days it is much more likely that Col. Marshall's eggs were laid in the first week of April. So=called Ground=Thrushes (Geodchla}. As with some other reputed ground-frequenting birds, these Thrushes appear to pass a great part of their time on trees or in bushes, rarely alighting on the ground excepting to feed. Like the typical Thrushes and Blackbirds they s'hould have soft food, fruit and insects, spiders and worms. ORANGE-HEADED GROUND-THRUSH (Geodchla citrina). Head, neck, and under parts pale brownish orange ; chin and throat paler, somewhat whitish ; remainder of upper surface bluish grey ; a small white spot on the median wing-coverts ; primary coverts with black tips ; abdomen becoming paler towards vent, the latter and under tail-coverts white ; bill blackish horn colour; eyes, dark brown ; feet brownish fawn coloured. Female duller, the back, wings, and tail tinged with olivaceous. Habitat " Throughout the whole range of the Himalaya.-, not exceeding an elevation of from 4,000ft. to 5,000ft. It is also found in most of the forests and well-wooded districts of Northern and Central India, extending rarely as low as North latitude 10 deg. I procured it from the jungles of the Eastern Ghats, inhabiting the same locality as the last species (G. ci/aiiniintits), though much more rare. It has also been obtained in Goomsoor, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, where quite common in the cold season, and in the forests of Central India. 1 procured specimens in Sikkim, but only in the warmer valleys. It extends through Assam and Burmah. " The Orange-headed Thrush keeps to woods and shady gardens; and, like the last, prefers bamboo- jungle. It feeds on the ground on insects, turning over the leaves to find them; and, as remarked by Blyth, often having its bill clogged with mud, from feeding in damp spots. It is shy and silent in general; but, during the breeding season, the male has a pretty song. Button found the nest at Mussooree in the forks of high trees, made of grasses, moss, stalks, and roots ; and with three or four eggs, pale greenis'^, freckled with rufous tormung a sort of patch at the upper end." (Jerdon " Birds of Indda," Vol. I., p. 518). In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds " we read : " The Orange-headed Ground Inrush breeds in the Himalayas from Murree to Assam at elevations of from 1,500ft. to 5.000ft., laying from the end of April to nearly the end of June. They build a rather broad, cup-shaped nest of moss, grass and very fine twigs, or fir-needles, lined with fine moss roots, and at times a little hair, measuring some Sin in diameter, and with a cavity about 3.5in. broad anc? 1.75m. deep. The nest is placed in some fork of a moderate-sized tree, in the case of all that I have seen, at no great height from the ground. " They lay three, and often four eggs, and one nest found below Kotegurh contained five. " Mr. R. Thompson, writing from Kumaon, says : I have never found this bird except at 1,500ft. to 2,000ft. elevation at most. It arrives in our forests at the begin- ning of April, when the males begin to utter their sweet yet loud notes, and commence breeding operation* "From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us that this species builds a;bout the beginning of June in the fork of a low tree about 6ft. up. Lays three eggs, pale greenish white, finely speckled with rufous-brown, forming a patch at the larger end lin. in length, O.Bin. in breadth. "A nest _sent me by Mr. Mandelli. which was placed in a fork in a bamboo cluster at about 5ft. from the ground, is a very loose, untidy nest, composed ex- teriorly of dead lea.ves, bamboo spathes, a few twigs and pieces of decayed bamboo, all wound together with vegetable fibre. The whole of the nest is composed of GROUND-THRUSHES. 17 much the same materials, except that interiorly there are more chips of rotten bamboo and more vegetable fibre, and very little dead leaf ; there is a mere pretence for a lining, a dozen or so very fine wirelike twigs being wound round at the bottom of the cavity. " Mr. Gates writes : ' May 22nd. Nest in a shrub in a ravine near Pegu, about 4ft. from the ground, made of roots and strips of soft bark, the ends of some of the latter hanging down a foot or more. The interior lined with moss and fern roots. Interior and exterior diameters 4in. and Sin. respectively ; inside depth about 2in. and bottom of nest about lin. thick. Contained three eggs quite fresh, measuring 1.04, 1, and 1.06 by 0.75, 0.76, and 0.79 respectively. A fourth egg found on the ground near the nest was 1.03 by 0.78. " Another nest with three eggs was found on June 10th. " The eggs are a broad oval, much pointed towards one end, about the size and shape of the European Water Ouzel's egg. The ground colour is dull greyish or greenish white, and each has a conspicuous mottled and speckled red-brown cap at the large end. The cap is not sharply defined, and beyond it specklings and minute streaks of the same colour extend more or less over the whole of the rest of the surface of the egg, in some cases ceasing entirely, in others diminishing in frequency as they approach the smaller end. " Some of the eggs of this species have a very fine gloss, and most of them are fairly glossy. In some the markings are brighter and redder, in others duller and browner. Dull purple markings are generally inter- mingled in the cap, and though this is generally at the larger end I have one egg in which it is at the smaller end. "In length the eggs vary from 0.82in. to l.lin., and in breadth from 0.7in. to 0.82in., but the average of a dozen eggs is 0.99in. by 0.77in." Hithertjp this beautiful bird has not been freely im- ported. According to Russ, the London Zoological Gardens received a specimen in 1876, since which time he believes at least two examples were imported into London. Mr. Emil Linden, of Rudolfzell, at the Bodensee, obtained one in 1877, and another reached the Frankfort Zoological Gardens in 1878 ; this Thrush was also offered by the Jamrachs of London in 1881 and 1862 at 3 a niece. Little is known respecting its habits in captivity. WHITE-THROATED GROUND-THRUSH (Geocichla cyanonotus). Male head, nape, sides of neck, breast and abdomen rusty orange, remainder of upper surface bluish or leaden grey ; the flights and tail feathers somewhat dusky, a white patch on the outer median wing coverts and a white tip to the outermost tail feather ; lores white, cheeks and ear coverts white, crossed by two parallel brown bands from below and back of eye to throat, the first becoming somewhat ferruginous at its lower end, which crosses the side of throat to the breast ; vent and under-tail coverts white ; bill blackish, lower mandible somewhat orange towards the base and along tomium ; eyes brown ; feet, according to Jerdon, flesh-brown, but represented as orange in the illustra- tion of Mr. Phillips's example. Female differs from male in its colours being less pure. The White-winged Ground-Thrush* is peculiar to the jungles of Southern India, extending as far as Goomsoor on the east coast, and to Bombay on the west side of India. It is most abundant in the forests of Malabar and Wynaad, but is not rare in the jungles * Jerdon's name for the species ; but not at all a good one. of the Eastern Ghats. It prefers bamboo jungles, feed* on the ground, and generally perches low. Its food is chiefly insects, such as ants, cockroaches, and beetles, but not infrequently also stony fruit. It has rather a sweet song, not often heard, however. Mr. Ward pro- cured the nest in N. Canara, made of roots and grass, placed at no great hoight from the ground ; and the eggs, three in number, were pale bluish, speckled with brown." (Jerdon, "Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 517.) From Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. II., pp. 98-9, I quote the following : "Mr. G. W. Vidal writes : 'The species is plentiful about Dapuli in the Southern Konkan. It breeds in the gardens about the station in June, July, and August. I have not myself taken the eggs of this species, but Mr. A. Jardine, of Dapuli, who knows the birds well, and who at once recognised specimens in my collection, has taken a great many nests, and has given me several eggs. He writes : " The nest is made of roots, twigs, and grass, with a good deal of mud. The egg-cavity is about S^in. in diameter, and from 2in. to Sin. deep. The nest is generally placed in the fork of a tree low down. The highest I ever saw was about 15ft. from the ground in a kinjal tree, but they are mostly found in mango trees. When the Thrushes have young they will not let anyone go near the nest, but come flying at you, and peck like fun." The eggs vary greatly in colour and markings, presenting two or three very distinct types.' " Mr. J. L. Darling, jun., to whom I am indebted for the eggs of this species, has favoured me with the following note in regard to dts nidification. He says : "The first nest that I found of the White-throated Ground-Thrush I took on Kulputty Hill, in the Wynaad (Malabar), at an elevation of about 2,800 feet above the sea. It was placed in a small tree, in a fork about 11 feet from the ground, precisely in the same kind of situation as our Nilghiri Blackbird would choose. The nest, too, was very like a Blackbird's a foundation of leaves and sandy clay, the main body of the nest com- posed of roots, intermingled with a few twigs and a little grass, and the cavity lined with roots and slender petioles of the nelly-kai. " This nest contained three partly-incubated eggs. The birds were very shy. I visited the nest four times before I shot the male and six before I shot the female. Directly I approached the nest the bird noiselessly dropped on to the ground and crept away through the brushwood. When disturbing them I noticed that their call was low and sweet like that of the Blackbird when similarly disturbed. "On the 9th I found a second nest, this time about 500 feet lower, at the foot of the hill. It was built in a loquat tree, in a fork about 22 feet from the ground, and was in every respect similar to the last, except that a little moss had been used in the construction. The birds were very brave, defending their nest against one of those thieves of Crow Pheasants, and it was the noise they made that attracted me to the nest. Again I was struck with the great similarity of their notes to those of the Blackbird when its nest is being robbed. This nest contained four perfectly fresh eggs, of which I took three, and then watched the old birds return to the nest, when they broke the one egg I had left to pieces. They have, however, begun another nest in a jack tree close by. "Their song is never heard except in the early morn- ings and evenings, and mostly in the latter. They go hopping about under the coffee trees and scratching up and turning over the leaves in search of food." Russ does not mention this species, though he does refer to one or two others which have never been im- 18 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. ported. The White-throated Ground-Thrush has been imported more than once. Mr. Reginald Phillipps {The Arii'iiltural Magazine, N.S., Vol. II.) writes along account of the species (pp. 179-188). He tell us that he obtained, two males on the 8th October, 1902. and says that, " although a great deal on the ground and in low bushes, they are often on the higher perches. They prefer to roost on their natural twigs, sometimes about 3ft. to 4ft. from the ground, very often on the highest available spot." Contrary to what Mr. Darling says of the song, Mr. Phillipps says " they sing from early dawn until nearly dark for fully nine months out of the twelve " ; and. in opposition to what Jerdon says about the song being He says that some experts during the summer give nothing but fresh ants' eggs, others rich Nightingale food and shredded figs, and others, again, equal parts of ants' eggs and white worms moistened with grated carrot. As I find that my own mixture, with fruit and insects, seems to suit all kinds of insectivorous birds, I should think Russ's own suggestion as to the correct food is good enough. COMMON ROCK-THRUSH (Monticola xa.rafilit). Male : Head and neck slate-blue ; mantle darker, varied with blackish brown ; lower part of back white ; rump bluish slate ; upper tail-coverts bright orange ; tail orange, excepting central feathers, which are pale THE ROCK-THRUSH. not often heard, he says " their clear, ringing voices have been cheering our hearts all through this dull, cheerless winter, are falling on my ears now as I write, and have this winter compelled the most captious of my neighbours, however unwillingly, to admire the glorious singing of the birds." In the bird show at the Crystal Palace in January, 1905, Mr. Hawkins exhibited a specimen of this species, a drawing of which appeared in The Fiaflm-i'd Wnrlrl, and it is possible that other examples may have been imported. Rock=Thrushes (Montiwlit}. According to Russ, these birds should be fed upon a general Thrush mixture and eight to fifteen mealworms daily, or, instead of these, on various kinds of insects, worms, slugs, berries, and various other kinds of fruit. brown with orange bases ; flights brown ; wing-coverts darker, more or less fringed with white ; under surface from throat downwards, including under tail-coverts and axillaries, bright orange ; bill, eyes, and feet dark brown. Female : Mottled above with various shades of brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail orange ; below buff, suffused with pale orange and pale brown, less distinctly mottled than above ; throat and breast darker ; abdomen and crissum paler ; under wing- coverts and axillaries orange. Habitat, mountains of Southern Europe and Central Asia to South Siberia and China. It visits North and East Africa on migration, as well as the borders of India and North Burma. J. I. S. Whitaker thinks it probable that many examples remain in Tunisia to breed. According to Mr. Meade-Waldo it breeds in suitable localities in Morocco. He met with it at an ROCK-THRUSHES. 1!) altitude of 10,500 feet. (The Ibis, 1903, p. 205.) Three examples are recorded as having occurred in England. According to Whitaker, this and the following species are " true mountain birds, and rarely to be found at any distance from rocky ground. The rougher and more broken this may be, the better suited it is to the tastes and requirements of the birds. Wooded districts are more or less shunned, unless there should happen to be rocky ground also near at hand. The favourite haunts of Monticola, however, are undoubtedly wild mountain ravines and valleys strewn with huge boulders and rocks of every size, where a few dwarf bushes and an occasional stunted and weatherbeaten tree are the only signs of vegetation." (Whitaker, " Birds of Tunisia," Vol. L, p. 17.) Russ says that " in its behaviour the Bock-Thrush resembles the typical Thrushes less than the Chats and Redstarts ; though like the former, it is wise and pro- vident, lively and active. It flies lightly and rapidly, generally in a straight direction, hovering and circling before perching. It does not hop on the ground, but runs with tail wagging or vibrating with numerous rapid bows." (Fremdl. Weiehfutterfresser in " Fremdl. Stubenv.," Vol. II., p. 168.) The nest is constructed in May or June in crevices in rooks and walls, often in almost inaccessible spots ; sometimes, however, in heaps of stone, and even among the roots of trees in scrub, or holes in stumps ; in some localities among ruins. It is roughly constructed of moss, twigs, roots, bents, and blades of grass, upon a foundation of dead leaves, and is neatly lined with feathers and hair, or with fine rootlets and dry grass. The eggs are four or five in number, of a glossy, bluish green colour, either spotless, or marked with a few faint brown specks, usually at the larger end. Ac- cording to Seebohm, the colouring is similar to eggs of the Song Thrush, excepting that it is paler and the eggs are rounder ; in tint he considered them inter- mediate between those of the Song Thrush and Starling. With regard to its vocal performances, Seebohm says : " The song of the Rock-Thrush is, indeed, a sweet and varied one, and in those countries it frequents the bird is in the highest request as a cage songster, some- times the most fabulous prices being paid for b ; rds whose musical powers are beyond the ordinary degree of sweetness and variation. Its wild, powerful song is equal to that of the Blackcap, and, for variety and "bone, comes little short of the ever-changing notes of the Throstle and the rich flute-like warblings of the Black- bird. Its call-note is a peculiar piping cry, sometimes similar to that of the Ring Ouzel." ("Hist. Brit. Birds," Vol. I., p. 283.) According to A. von Homeyer, the courting of this species is conducted as follows : The bird stands in an upright position, with spread wings and tail, which beat upon the ground, with widely-spread back feathers, the head thrown up and backward, the bill widely open, and the eyes half closed. It lifts itself, flutters and flaps, rising alo'ft after the manner of the Larks, at the same time singing loudly and powerfully, and then returning to its roost. Attempts to breed the Rock-Thrush in captivity have been made by various avioulturists, some of whom have been successful. According to Russ, Professor Liebe, of Gera, first successfully bred it in 1871, and produced several broods. He quotes the following account in the -words of that birdkeeper : "After I had bred Rock-Thrushes for three years in succession, I was able to attempt further breeding from the young. With the young females bred by me the attempt fell out badly, since none of them would pair up, to say nothing of going to nest. It is possible that the males placed with them had been taken wild and hand- reared, and there- fore were too weak for these strong females ; anyhow they always flew away from them. Thereupon further breeding was carried on admirably with young males bred by me, to whom I gave young hand-reared females from Switzerland. I may now record the following results. The breeding of the Rock-Thrush dn a small windowed room, or in a very large birdcage, is not very difficult. Complete seclusion, in order to avoid disturbance, is not only unneces- sary but is even detrimental, for thereby many birds become wild and nervous ; whereas thoroughly tame birds love the companionship of their keeper, and, moreover, palpably crave for it. Only the exact nesting-sites must be concealed from the eye of the visitor as much as possible. The pair is unwilling to nest excepting in a hole in brickwork, with a wide entrance, or in an open but little conspicuous burrow. For building material they only accept dry grass. Nest-building commences in the middle of May, and by the end of May the clutch is ready. After the hatching of the young fresh ants' cocoons of the best quality and mealworms are given. Coarse sand should not be lack- ing with them. After four days the old female takes them freshly-prepared old curd cheese. From the sixth day onward cheese, ants' cocoons, and mealworms form the chief constituents of the food of the young, but the female seeks in the vicinity in all other food-dishes, and now and again brings a scrap of cooked meat or fruit and the like to the nest. All kinds of insects and worms, as well as the flesh of fish, are also welcome to her. The young grow up quickly, and become larger and stronger than birds taken from the nest in the open and hand-reared. After flight they accept the ordinary food of the adults, and occasionally meal- worms, and any other kinds of insects from out of doors. For the young birds a large cage is necessary, with so few. perches that they must use their wings, and also some brickbats upon which they may sit." BLUE ROCK-THRUSH (Monticola cyanus.) Male : Above and below deep slate-blue, wings and tail brownish black ; bill and feet black, eyes brown. Female : Above umber-brown, below mottled brown and buff. Habitat, Southern Europe to Central Asia as far as the Himalayas, Ceylon, Burma, and China, wintering in North Africa and Arabia. A single example is said to have been killed in the county of Westmeath, in Ireland, in November, 1866. Colonel Legge says : " This species varies in its habits according to the locality it frequents. Its usual custom is, doubtless, as its name implies, to affect rocky places, boulder-strewn hillsides, wild gorges, the stony banks of rivers, the vicinity of mountain preci- pices, and other barren and inhospitable spots ; and when thus met with is a shy and wary bird, manifest- ing a very restless disposition, flitting from rock to rock, and uttering a clear whistle as it takes flight on the approach of danger." Mr. Fair informs me that it displayed all those restless manners on both occasions when he met with it in the Ceylon hills. In parts of India, however (and the same is the case with the Eastern variety), it is quite a familiar bird, " perching on house-tops, feeding about stables, and frequently even entering verandahs, and sheltering itself during the heat of the day on beams and the eaves of houses." "It is, in fact," writes Jerdon, "supposed to be the Sparrow of the English version of the Scriptures, ' which _f,itteth alone on the house-top.' " Mr. Oates has a similar experience of it in Pegu. He says that FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. " it is not ^infrequently seen singly, more especially in the vicinity of wooden bungalows. At Thayetmayo one occasionally came into my compound for a day or so, and then suddenly disappeared for a month or two. It will flit into the verandah, sit on the post-plate, aiid remain for a few minutes in perfect silence." Mr. Elliot likewise noticed that it was very tame, often coming into houses, and hopping ahout the verandah. It is usually a solitary bird, and feeds entirely on the ground on ants, Coleoptera, and various insects. Its song is said to be very sweet, and is commenced in India for some time before it leaves the country, not when feeding, but when it happens to have taken shelter during the heat of the day. It is caught in the Deccan and on the Bombay coast by the natives, and is much prized as a songster, being called by them the tihdma, which name, however, really applies to the Long-tailed Robin (Cittocincla macrura). Col. Irby, who publishes some interesting notes on its habits in the " Birds of Gibraltar," writes that it frequents daily the same spots, attracting considerable notice, both from its agreeable song and conspicuous habits. He further remarks : " The Blue Thrush very often perches on trees, and at Gibraltar and Tangier is frequently seen on the housetops, though generally observed on bare, rocky ground. It is sometimes found in wooded parts, if there are any high rocks ; for instance, a pair nest at the first waterfall of Algeciras, which is in the midst of a dense forest. It has a habit in the courting season of flying straight out from a rock, and then suddenly dropping wkh the wings half shut, like a Wood Pigeon in the nesting time. The Blue Thrush is very fond of ivy berries and all fruit." Lord Lilford writes : " It is very omnivorous ; literally fish, flesh, fowl and fruit I have seen it devour with apparently equal gusto, to say nothing of almost any insect." (" Birds of Ceylon," Vol. II., p. 462.) Whitaker observes : " The J'axw'ro solitario, as this bird is called in Italy, is greatly prized in that and other Mediterranean countries, not only on account of its agreeable song, but also because of its bright and attrac- tive ways, for though rather shy in its natural state if. is capable of becoming remarkably tame in confinement, particularly when brought up from the nest. At the present time I have one which is a delightful pet. " The song of the Blue Rock-Thrush is composed of sweet, flute-like notes, resembling some of those of the common Thrush, although not quite equal to them. The bird is also a good mimic, and has a facility for acquiring the notes of other birds. " The nest of this species, which is generally to be found in a fissure or cleft between rocks, or in the hole of a wall, is composed chiefly of root fibres loosely put together. The eggs, usually five in number, are of a beautiful glossy greenish-blue, and in the case of all those in my collection are without any spots. Average measurements, 25mm. by 19mm. ("Birds of Tunisia," Vol. II., p. 20.) Whistling Thrushes (Myioplioneus). According to Russ, these birds should be fed like other Thrushes, not forgetting the item of fruit. Although he only knows of one species as having been imported, he describes three. HOKSFIELD'S WHISTLING THRUSH (Myio])honeus horsfieldi). Male Above and below, indigo-black; a frontal band not extending to base of bill, and shoulders, bright cobalt blue ; some of the feathers on the under surface edged with the same colour ; bill black : eyes dark brown ; feet brownish blue. Female undescribed as distinct, but (judging by description of Bligh's Whistling Thrush) the blue shoulder patch should be paler and more conspicuous. Doubtless the form of the bill also differs. Habitat, forests of Southern and Western India. " It especially delights in mountain torrents, and if there is a waterfall it is sure to be found there. It feeds on various insects, earthworms, slugs, shells, and also on small crabs, which I have very frequently found constituting its chief food ; and ithe remains of legs, etc., of these Crustacea are generally found on the ro;.'ks at, the edge of every pool of water frequented by it. I once procured its nest, placed under a shelf of a rock on the Burliar stream, on the slope of the Neil- gberries. It was a large structure of roots, mi:\ed with earth, moss, etc., and contained three eggs of a pale salmon or reddish-fawn colour, with many smallish broiwn spots. I kept a bird, which I had wounded slightly, for some weeks, feeding it on earthworms and snails, and every morning before sunrise I would hear ity fine whistle. Its song consists of four or five beauti- fully clear whistling notes, so like the whistle of a man or boy as to be constantly mistaken for it, and it is known to many on the Neilgherries as the Whistling Thrush. It would be a. highly desirable and interest- ing cage-bird." Jerdon, "Birds of India," Vol. I., page 499. In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds " are many accounts, from which I select the following : "Mr. W. Davison says, 'The Malabar Whistling Thrush (rather a misnomer, by the way) breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiris, never ascending higher than 6,000ft. The neist is always placed on some rock in a mountain torrent; it is a coarse and, for the size of the bird, a very large structure, and though I have never measured the nest I should say that the total height was about 18in. or more, and the greatest diameter about 18in. Exteriorly it is composed of roots, dead leaves, and decaying vegetation of all kinds ; the egg cavity, which is saucer-shaped and compara- tively shallow, is coarsely lined with roots. It breeds during March and April.' " The statement that the nest is always placed on a rock in a mountain torrent is disproved by Miss Cock- burn, who took eggs from nests built high up in holes in trees both in March and July; while Mr. J. Darling, jun., remarks that "this species commonly builds in holes in trees." He says: "July 22. Nest found near Kythery, S. Wynaad, in a crevice of a log of a felled tree in a new clearing lift, from the ground. Nest built entirely of roots. The foundation was of roots from some swampy ground, and had a good deal of mud about it. Another nest was in a hole of a dead tree 32ft. from the ground." Mr. Frank Bourdillon writes from Travancore : " Very common from the base to near the summit of the hills, frequenting alike jungle and open clearings, though generally found in the neighbourhood of some running stream. I have known this species to build on ledges of rock and in a hollow tree overhanging a stream, in either case constructing a rather loosely put together nest of roots and coarse fibre with a little green moss intermixed. The female lays two to four eggs, and both birds assist in the incubation. "The eggs of this species .... are broad, nearly regular ovals, slightly compressed towards the lesser end. considerably elongated, and more or less spherical, and pyriform varieties occur. The shell is fine, and has a slight gloss; the ground-colour is pale salmon-pink or pinkish white, occasionally greyish white. The whole egg is, as a rule, finely speckled, spotted, and splashed with pinkish brown or brownish pink. The markings in BLUETHROATS AND MAGPIE ROBINS. 21 most eggs, everywhere very fine, are often considerably more dense at the large end, where they are not unusually more or less underlaid by a pinkish cloud, with which they form an irregular, ill-defined and incon- spicuous cap. "At times, more boldly and richly marked eggs are met with. One now before me is everywhere thickly streaked with dull pink, in places purplish, and over this is thinly but rather conspicuously spotted and irregu- larly blotched (the blotches being small, however) with light burnt sienna brown. "In length they vary from 1.18in. to 1.48in., and in breadth from 0.92in. to lin." (Vol. I., pp. 124-7.) An example of this species first came to the London Zoological Gardens in 1876. Whether others have arrived since I cannot say, but must echo Dr. Russ's hope that sooner or later they will do so. BLUETHROATS (Cyanecula). Dr. Russ, perhaps rightly, omits these birds from his " Fremdliindischen Stubenvogel." Of course, they are recognised as European species, and the Arctic Blue- throat is admitted as a British species. The very rarely imported New Zealand Robins, so- called, are referred to the Chats by him. He does not mention the South Island species (Miro albifrons), of which four examples were presented to our Zoological Society in 1893, but he gives a very brief notice of what he calls the "Long-legged Chat" (Miro longipes), a specimen of which, he tells us, was received by the Berlin Zoological Gardens in 1896. He says it is an inconspicuous bird, which in behaviour, movements, and song greatly resembles our Robin. For descriptions of the plumage and wild habits of these birds, should any of my readers ever be fortunate enough to possess them, I must refer them to Buller's " Birds of New Zealand " ; but it is not very probable that they will need to refer to it. MAGPIE ROBINS (Copsyehus). THE DAYAL (Copsyehus saularis). The trivial name of this bird has been variously spelt, but I have adopted Dr. Jerdon's rendering as being most likely to be correct. The entire head, neck, breast, and upper parts of the male (excepting the four outer tail-coverts, which are white) are black, glossed with, blue excepting on the wings. The remainder of the under surface is white. The female is slate-grey above ; wings brown ; throat and breast ashy; abdomen sandy brown, whitish in the centre. Young birds have the upper parts brown, the breast dusky with rufous spotting ; bill and feet black ; iris brown. This species ranges over the whole of India and Ceylon, and eastwards to Tenasserim, being chiefly met with in well-wooded districts. Jerdon gives the follow- ing account of its wild habits : " It is generally seen alone or in pairs, usually seeks its prey on the ground from a low perch, often hopping a few steps to pick up an insect. When it returns to its perch it generally elevates its tail, and often utters a pleasing warble. Though it frequently raises and depresses its tail, both when perched and on the ground, I cannot say that I have observed the Wagtail-like flirtation of its tail noted by Hodgson, or that it throws its tail back till it nearly touches its head, as Layard has seen. Towards the evening it may often be seen near the top of some tolerably large tree, or other elevated perch, pouring forth its song. I have always found its food to consist of insects of various kinds, small grasshoppers, beetles, worms, etc. Hodgson asserts that in winter they like unripe vetches, and such like ; but this is quite opposed to the usual habits of this group. It breeds generally in thick bushes or hedges ; sometimes in a hole in a bank or tree, and occasionally in a hole in a wall, or on the rafter of a house. The nest is made of roots and grass ; and the eggs, four in number, are bluish ivhite or pale bluish, with pale brown spots and blotches. Layard says that the eggs are bright blue, and Hutton that they are carneous cream colour, but these observers must, I think, have been mistaken in the identity of the owner of the nest. The Dayal is often caged, as well for its song as for its pugnacious qualities, which, according to Hodgson, are made use of to capture others." Mr. Hume observes (" Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. II., pp. 80-81) : "The Magpie-Robin breeds throughout India. Many resort during the nesting season to the Dhoons and Terais that skirt the Hima- layas, and to the lower ranges of these latter, in which they may be found nesting up to an elevation of at least 5 ; 000ft. " They lay from the end of March to quite the end of July, but by far the majority of eggs are to .be found alike in hills and plains during the latter half of April and May. So far as my experience goes and I have taken scores the nests are invariably placed in holes in trees, banks, or walls, or under the eaves of huts. I have never seen or personally heard of a well attested instance of their breeding in bushes ; but it is still pretty certain, from what Captain Beavan and others DAYAL BIRD. have recorded, that they do, at any rate occasionally, nest in such situations. " In the plains the nest is generally composed of roots, grass, fibres, and feathers, but in the hills moss and lichens are largely used. In shape the nest is typically a broad, very shallow, loosely-built saucer, some 4in. or Sin. in diameter, and with a central de- pression about an inch in depth; but they vary much, according to the shape and size of the cavity in which they are placed. Some are more regularly cup-shaped, while many are mere pads. A few small twigs, or a few dead leaves, may at times be found doing duty as a foundation ; but whether placed there by the bird or deposited by the wind anterior to the construction of the nest, may be doubtful. Five is unquestionably the full complement of eggs, although once or twice 1 have taken four partially incubated ones." According to Hume, the eggs are greenish, greenish white, pale sea-green, or pale slightly greenish blue, streakily blotched and mottled with different shades of 22 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. brownish red, sometimes thinly, at other times densely, sometimes forming a cap at the larger end. Many of them are perfect miniatures of eggs of Merula simil- lima, and recall varieties of those of the English Black- bird. He concludes that they indicate affinity to the typical Thrushes and not to the Wheatears, as Dr. Jerdon supposed. This species was bred in our Zoological Gardens as long ago as 1873 ; but amateurs have not many oppor- tunities of following up this success, the bird being still very dear in the market. Its treatment in captivity should be much the same as with the Shama. It makes a charming and confiding pet. I believe the Rev. C. D. Farrar is the only private successful breeder of the Dayal or Dhyal-bird in this country. The hen nested in a box in an indoor aviary, laid three eggs, of which two were hatched. These were reared on mealworms and " clocks," but both were subsequently killed by the cock bird. Mr. Farrar there- fore decided that in future he would remove the cock as soon as the eggs were laid. (The Avu-utturdl Magazine, 1st series, Vol. V., pp. 146-7.) SEYCHELLEAN DAYAL (Copsychus sechellarum). Male. Blue-black, with a white longitudinal band on each wing ; bill black ; eyes brown ; feet black. Probable female a trifle larger than the male. Habitat, Seychelles. The habits of this bird are in all probability similar to those of the Indian bird. It is, in its native home, highly prized as a song-bird, and also for fighting pur- poses, according to Dr. Russ. Hitherto, our London Zoological Gardens appear to have been the only ones to exhibit it to the public. Its treatment in captivity would be the same as in the case of C. saularis. SHAMAS (Cittocmcla). INDIAX SHAMA (Cittocincla mamira}. The upper parts of this bird are glossy black, with the exception of the rump, which is white ; the wings have dull black flights, the outer tail feathers are tipped with white, the under parts are rich chestnut. Length, inclusive of tail, 1ft.. but the tail i.s almost Sin. in length. The bill is black, the feet pale flesh colour, and the irides are dark brown. The female is duller than the male, more ashy black ; the flights with narrower pule borders ; white tips to four outer tail feathers smaller ; under surface dis- tinctly paler. Occurs throughout all the uncultivated jungly parts of India. Jerdon says of it: " The Shama frequents the densest thickets, and is very partial to thick bamboo jungles. It is almost always solitary, perches on low branches, and hops to the ground to secure a small grasshopper or other insect. When alarmed, it flies before you from tree to tree at no great height. Its song is chiefly heard in the evening, just before and after sunset. It is a most gushing melody, of great power, surpassed by no Indian bird. In confinement it imitates the notes of other birds, and of various animals, with ease and accuracy. It is caught in great numbers, and caged for its song. Many are brought from the Nepal Terai to Mynghyr. chiefly young birds. It is the practice throughout India to cover the cages of singing birds with cloth, and in some places a fresh piece of cloth is added every year. The birds certainly sing away readily when thus caged, but not more so perhaps than others freely exposed. The Shama is usually fed on a paste made of parched chenna, mixed with the yolk of hard-boiled eggs, and it appears to thrive well on this diet, if a few maggots or insects are given occasionally. It will also eat pieces of raw meat in lieu of insects." I asked Colonel C. T. Binsham recently whether he had ever taken eggs of the Shama. He replied. " Dozens ; the birds always build in holes in bamboo." I see that Hume mentions one of the nests in his "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. II., pp. 86-7: " On the slope of a steep spur of the east watershed range of the Meplay river, in dense bamboo forest, I found, on April 4th, 1878, a nest of the above bird. A Woodpecker had made a hole in a partially dry wah bo bamboo (Bambusa brandieiana) of immense girth. Of this the Shama had taken advantage, and having stuffed up the hollow from the next knot below to Avithin 3in. of the hole with dry bamboo leaves, had above that made a loose cup-shaped nest of twigs and roots. I was eating my lunch, seated on a rook not far from the bamboo in question, and saw the female, after making two or three short flights and baulking herself in the direction of the hole, finally enter it. I approached very cautiously, and stuffing my handker- chief into the entrance hole managed to secure eggs and bird. The former were four in number, slightly set, of an oily green colour, much spotted, speckled, and dashed with umber-brown. They measured respec- tively 0.9in. by 0.62in., 0.87in. by 0.62in., 0.85in. by 0.61in., and 0.85 by 0.62in." Mr. Hume observes that this species " is a permanent resident of the warm and well-watered jungles of the Peninsula of India and of Burma, but (he says) my only information in regard to its nest and eggs is from Tenasserim and Pegu." For many years I had wished to possess a Shama, in order to study its song, of which I had only heard scraps at bird shows. It was therefore with consider- able pleasure that I accepted Mr. H. C. Heselton's kind offer to give me a specimen, perfect in all respects ex- cepting; that its toes were somewhat deformed (one foot has five toes, and both hind claws are directed for- ward). This bird reached me through the post in November, 1903, and is still in excellent health. The song is rich, powerful, and exceedingly varied. As a rule, it is continued in an unbroken changing melody somewhat after the fashion of that of the North American Mocking-bird. Then the bird will start upon a set phrase and repeat it over and over again, with a pause between each utterance. Oddly enough, whereas the full song could only be rendered (if at all) by musical notation, the short repetitions sound ridicu- lously like human words. My bird frequently repeats the 'following: "What Willy! What Willy! What Willy! What Willy! What! 'tut, tut!"; "We don't appear to," the second syllable of " appear " much emphasised, and "Several pairs of puttee!" These sentences will be repeated until one is almost weary of them, and then suddenly there is a change. Mr. Phillipps bred the Shama in his garden aviary in 1893, and published an account of his experience in Vol. IV. of Tli" AriciiHnral Mat/azitic. 1st senY.-. pp. 138-142 (1898) : the young were reared upon cock- roaches, mealworms, and gentles. SHAMA (Cittocinda suavis]. Differs from the Indian bird in its superior size, shorter tail, the three lateral tail feathers, and the- outer portion of the next pair quite white. Dr. Russ quoted Dr. Sclater as saying that the male had a black man-in to the base of the inner webs of the second and THE INDIAN SHAMA. 24 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. third pairs, this character being absent from an un- doubted female in his possession, which ako had the three outer pairs of tail feathers entirely white, the body paler chestnut-brown, the plumage above more dingy, and the size smaller. Habitat, Borneo. Russ gives no information respecting the habits of this Shama, either wild or in captivity ; but in The Avicultural Magazine for February, 1898, the Rev. Hubert D. Astley has given an interesting account of a Shama in his possession, which, according to Mr. Reginald Phillipps, is probably not the ordinary species, but O. suavis. Mr. Astley recommends that the bird should be fed upon Abrahams' or some other insectivor- ous mixture, fresh chopped raw beef, mealworms, fruit, and insects. He also recommends a roomy cage and a big bath. Several owners of Shamas have insisted upon the necessity for meat in some form, either raw or cooked, for feeding them ; they undoubtedly eat it when offered. but I know that they do equally well without it, and I am not at all sure that it is good for them. I have found that butchers' meat, given to insectivorous birds as a regular article of diet, is apt to scour them badly. A very little now and again may be beneficial, by acting as a mild purgative ; and if for weeks together I am unable to get either fur or feather for my Jays, and consequently think it well to mince up a little raw beef for them, I generally give my other soft-food eaters a taste, but not otherwise. Of course a roomy cage and daily bath are necessary to the health and condition of Shamas ; without both they soon become ragged, dirty, and unhealthy, are a misery to themselves, and give no satisfaction to their owner. The man who cannot accommodate one of these delightful birds with a 2-ft. long cage has no business to try to keep it, unless he likes to leave the door open and let the bird please itself as to whether it will roost inside or out. My bird on one occasion had his door left open accidentally for hours, but never took the trouble to leave the cage. BLUEBIRDS (Siali). COMMON BLUEBIRD OR BLUE ROBIN (Sialia sialt*). The colour of the cock Blue Robin above is bright lazuline blue, including the greater part of the wings and the tail ; the cheeks are duller ; the under parts are bright reddish chocolate, with the centre of the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverte white; tail below bluish grey; tips of flights above blackish, those of iimer secondaries fringed with brown ; tail feathers above slightly blackish at the tips ; bill and feet black. The hen is duller, and tinged with brown on the head and beak. The young bird has the head and beak of a brownish ash colour, the feathers partly streaked with white ; under parts mostly white, but the throat and breast greyish, streaked and spotted with a deeper shade. The young bird attains its adult plumage at the first moult, but the bill shows greater ba-al width, and is shorter than in either parent ; probably that of male birds does not attain to the slenderness and length of fully adult cocks until the end of its second year.* The Bluebird inhabits the Eastern United States, its ranee extending westward as far as Fort Laramie, Milk River, northward to Lake Winnipeg, and south- ward to Bermuda and Cuba, though it is rare in the * This apparent inconstancy in the proportions .)( the bill in full- coloured skins has led scientific ornithologists to doubt the value of the form of the bill as a sexual distinct ion, but all broad-billed males will be found to be small ; they are birds of t'le year. latter island. It is generally seen paired in the spring, busily turning over leaves, examining trunks or branches of trees, or posts or fences, in search of insects, especially small beetles, though it also feeds on caterpillars and winged insects of many kinds. In the autumn, when insects are scarce, it lives largely upon berries and small fruits. The song, as already mentioned, consists of a low, soft, but not unpleasant warbling ; the call-note is plaintive, and usually consists of a duplicated soft whistle. The natural site for the nest of the Bluebird is a hole in a tree (in which respect it resembles our Robin), but it readily takes possession of a box hung up for its use by its American admirers. There is not the least trouble in getting the Bluebird to breed in captivity, a box of the cigar-box pattern, with one half of the lid cut off and the other fastened down, being preferred to any other receptacle for the < In its wild state this species constructs its nest of iii it- grass, sedges, leaves, feathers, hair, or other soft materials loosely put together. The number 'of eggs deposited varies from three to five, or even sometimes six ; these are dull blue, some- HEAD OF BLUEBIRD, Bills of Male and Female Blackbirds. what like that of the Wheatear, but rather shorter, and deeper in colour. Three broods are naturally produced in a year, and I have had three nests of eggs in one year in an aviary. Incubation lasts thirteen days, but as the parents feed the young almost wholly on insects (which they swallow and disgorge again, whilst the young are delicate and unfeathered) the ta.sk of pro- viding for the wants of even one youngster in an indoor aviary is no light task, as I found to my cost. On the other hand, the Rev. C. D. Farrar, of York- shire, who used to keep his birds in large natural open- air avia.ries throughout the year, bred Blue Robins freelv and without difficulty. It is curious, as Mr. Farrar also observes, that the recklessness with which the hen Bluebird leaves her eggs when sitting does not interfere with their hatching; for whenever the male bird brings her an insect she goe< off her nest to swallow it, yet the eggs almost invariably hatch at the right time.' I have 'had several youngsters partly reared, although only one example in my aviaries ever lived to attain its adult plumage. I bred the Blue Robin in June, 1890, and published the following account in The Zoologist for April, 1! pp. 154-6: "My Blue Robins made friends early in June, t cock bird giving every in-ect he got hold of to the hen to induce her to receive his attentions ; the hen was very coy, and refused his advances until the end of the first fortnight. The pairing was a noisy affair, BLUEBIRDS. 25 as the cock bird kept up an incessant shrieking noise, with his body elongated and his beak turned up to the ceiling for fully half an hour beforehand and for quite ten minutes afterwards. On Sunday, the 15th of the month, the hen spent the whole day in carrying up hay to a large deep box nailed against the wall near the ceiling, and on the surface of this she formed a saucer-shaped depression, in which shortly afterwards she laid three eggs. Whilst sitting she was fed by the cock bird, but whenever he gave her an insect she in- slightly damped. I also gave them small earthworms mixed with garden mould in a large saucer, spiders of all sizes in quantity, flies, butterflies, moths, chrysalides, caterpillars, a few mealworms, and beetles. One point in the feeding which I have not geen recorded interested me greatly. It is well known to all breeders of both British and foreign Finches that they always feed one another and their young from the crop ; they never give them food which is not partially digested, so that the young are fed not only on vegetable or insect food, BLUEBIRDS OR BLUE ROBINS. variably left the nest to eat it. In thirteen days the eggs hatched, and two days later two of the young birds were carried out dead, and dropped upon the floor at some distance from the nest ; the third bird was safely reared, and moulted into his adult plumage towards the end of August. The staple food which I prepared for my Blue Robins, and upon which they partly fed their young one, was a mixture of crumbled stale bread (two parts), Abrahams' insectivorous birds' food (one part), prepared yolk of egg (one part), dried ants' eggs (one pa.rt). and grocers' currants (one part),* * Grocers' currants should not be given ; they may possibly nave caused the death of the two young which died in the nest. but upon half-digested and softened seeds ; but it was quite a new fact to me that soft-billed birds prepared food for their young. Indeed, I know that our Robin, Blackcap, and in fact our warblers generally, Thrushes of all kinds, Starlings, and Tits, merely crush or break up the worms or insects with which they feed their young. In the case of the Tits this does not appear to be done, or, if Accentors (Accentorin>t ), are referred in the Zoological Society's list to the Tits (Paridce) ; in the British Museum " Catalogue of Birds " they do not stand very far from Arcrntor, being only separated by one small genus. I shall therefore corn- mence the next group with Liof/iri.r. CHAPTER III. TIT-LIKE BIRDS (Paridce). Accentorine Tits THE PKKIN NIGHTINGALE (Liothrix luteus). The Red-billed Liothrix is not only one of the most beautiful, most lively, and yet most confiding of cage-birds, but is unquestionably one of the finest of foreign songster.?. Those who speak disparagingly of the musical capacity of Liothrix have certainly never heard a good one ; perhaps have never heard anything HEAD AND BILLS OF PEKIN NIGHTINGALE. beyond the short phrase which is the male bird's answer to the female call-note. I have had altogether some thirty-eight to forty, so that I am in a position to speak authoritatively on this point. The general colour of the upper surface in this bird is olive-green ; the forehead and crown are tinged with yellow, and the longer tr.il-coverts are tipped with white ; the middle pair of tail-feathers and the outer webs of the 'remainder are 'black, the inner webs brown ; primaries edged with yellow, wihich in all but the two outermost ones is replaced by vermilion towards the 'base ; secondaries glistening blue-black, with a patch of saffron-yellow near the base of the outer web of each ; lores and space inclosing eye form an elliptical yellow patch, in young birds 'this patch is only represented by a greyis'h zone round the eye ; ear-coverts silver-grey ; a moustachial streak, 'blackish at the base, 'but ^hading into ,smoky olivaceous, and expanding on each side of the throat ; chin and throat bright golden-yellow, deepening into orange on the front of the breast ; remainder of under parts with the centre yellowish, fading to whitish, and 'becoming pure white on the under tail-coverts ; the sides asfo-grey, washed on the breast with olivaceous. The bill in young birds is orange-ochreous, but in adults is coral-red, sometimes blackish at base of upper mandible, and yellowish round the edges of the subterminal notch ; the feet flesh coloured or rose-reddish; the iris brown. I have always found the female of this species very difficult to distinguish from the male, owing to the great variation which exists in different individuals of that *ex ; the differences which I gave in " Foreign Bird-Keeping," p. 12, for the most part do not hold good with the larger and more brightly-coloured hens. Of course, a bird with gravel-red instead of vermilion on the outer edge of the primaries, with pale yellow chin and throat and duller bill, is sure to be a female ; but there are females nearly, if not quite, as large as * According to some ornithologists these birds belong to the Crateropodidce. 30 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. males, which cannot be distinguished by these charac- teristics. The only difference which appears to be constant, apart from the song, is the -bright yellow elliptical patch enclosing the eye of the male, which in the female is either ashy or creamy-whitish. This seems to me likely to be the character by which the birds recognise one another's sex ; but the made always answers the monotonous call-note of the female by a short song of from seven to nine syllables. The Liothrix inhabits the Himalayas at an elevation of from 5,000 to 8,000 ft., and from Simla it passes eastward to China. With suoh a range the trivial name Pekin Nightingale conveys a false impression ; but it is in such general use that it is of little use to protest against it. In its native haunts this species usually frequents dense thickets and the underwood which springs up in the cleared parts of the forest, and is usually seen in parties of five or six individuals. It is naturally a shy bird, usually avoiding observation, and therefore the facility with which it becomes tame and learns to fly to its owner for mealworms in the aviary is the more remarkable. Its food consists of fruits, berries, seeds, and insects. According to scientific writers, its call-note is a chattering sound, but this is a mistake. The chattering is a sign of dis- pleasure either at being disturbed or at missing some favourite article of food. A net introduced into the aviary, or a new bird, the failure to give a mealworm or spider when it was expected, will all produce this form of bad language, in which both sexes will join with equal vigour. Naturally, this bird builds a cup- shaped nest of moss and dry leaves, bound together with grass and roots, in some leafy bush at no great height from the ground. From descriptions given in Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," it would seem that the nest is generally deep, and is fixed in a fork and attached to three or four of the slender prongs or twigs. In the aviary it will either build in a bush or a cigar nest-box. It generally lays three ci^s, rarely four, of a pale green tint, spotted and otherwise marked with red, purple, and brown, and incubation lasts about thirteen days. The Liothrix is very fond of bathing, and therefore every facility should be provided for this healthful amusement, in which I have seen my birds indulge at short intervals throughout the day during the hot weather. With regard to food, the more variety the better, whether as a mixture or separately ; bananas, oranges, or seed will be eaten greedily, 'boiled rice sparingly, potato, dry bread-crumbs, egg-food, and ants' eggs freely, grated carrot with less satisfaction, insects greedily. Mr. Keulemans, who bred this species in a conservatory, told me that as soon as the young left the nest there was a general battle, in which both old and young pecked out one another's eyes, so that the majority were maimed. This *-eems a curious thing, considering that many pairs may be frequently seen living in amity ; neither Dr. Russ nor Herr Wiener appear to have had such an experience. Once or twice my birds have carried a little nesting material into a box, but have made no further attempt at breeding. As a rule, however, I have not found the hens anything like so long-lived as the cocks, although two which I still possess as I write have already been in my possession for about seven years, and look like living some time yet. My first male Pekin Night inga.le died early in 1898, having been in my possession for upwards of ten years. I lost my second male on the opening day of the Crystal Palace Bird Show in the same year. He was in perfect plumage, and singing loudly to within half-an-hour of his death, which resulted from disease of the heart, all his other organs being perfectly healthy. Without exception, thus was the finest songster which I ever possessed, its ringing flute-like notes being clearly audible all over the house. One of this bird's phrase* sounded exactly like " Here's your ginger-beer here, Teddy ; so it is Gerty " ; but more frequently he stopped at " so it is," and sometimes he rattled on into a much longer but untranslatable song. By repeating the words to this bird I could almost always get him to ping them, much to the amusement and delight of visitors. He, however, had another more varied, fuller, and longer song, which I could only induce him to sing when I wanted it by repeating the monotonous and almost metallic hen- call in the usual high note, and then whistling it a 1 ittle lower. The song of the Liothrix more nearly resembles that of the Blackcap than of any other British bird, but it is more rapid, and frequently quite a.s loud as that of the Blackbird. When in full form, this bird will sing almost incessantly for hours together ; but at other times, if it hears the call of the hen, it will repeat one or other of its usual brief answers " C/ioo, choo : achooy, tochoo" ; or "Choo, choo; aclwoy, chooy ; clii><>- choo" ; both of which, from the measured manner in which they are uttered, can be at once recognised as mere musical calls, utterly apart from the full joyous warbling of the species. Under the name of Llnthrlr Dr. Russ gives descrip- tions of Siva ci/anuroptera, Mrxia nrr/rntauris, Mini*, ignitlncta, Sittiparus <-u.tani<-i -y/.<, Lii>/>/in/.< rIiri/*/ni*. and Proparits viniyectufi, of which only the first two have been imported as cage-birds; thi&'is catering for a future generation with a vengeance. SILVER-EARED MESIA (Mesia arf/enfauri*). Male. Head black; forehead, chin, and throat golden cadmium yellow ; ear coverts silky-white ; nape golden cadmium yellow shading into the green of the middle- back ; remainder of back, wing-coverts, and greater part of inner half of wing olive-green or greenish-slate ; primaries internally similar, but externally golden- cadmium, fading into clearer yellow and with a con- spicuous crimson patch at the' base; upper and under tail-coverts crimson ; tail olive-greenish, with the lateral feathers yellow externally ; breast brilliant golden yellow, continuous with that of the throat ; abdomen olivaceous ; .bill bright yellow ; feet flesh yellow ; iris of eye (according to Jerdon, brown) as figured by Mr. Gfonvold from living examples, yellow. The female has the forehead yellower, less orange, and the upper and under tail-coverts orange instea'd of crimson (as pointed out by Hodgson, but contradicted by Jerdon). Hab. " Eastern Himalayas, throughout the hills of North-Eastern Bengal and Burmah to Ten- asserim." (Brit, Mus. Cat. VII., p. 643.) The following notes on the nesting of this species are from Oates's edition of Hume's "Nests and Eggs," Vol. I., p. 160: "According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Silver-eared Mesia breeds in the lowlands of Nepal, laying in May and June. The nest is placed in a. bushy tree, between two or three thin twigs, to which it is attached. It is composed of dry bamboo and other leaves, thin grass-roots and moss, and is lined inside with fine roots. Three or four eggs are laid; one of these is figured as a broad oval, much pointed towards one end, measuring 0.8 by 0.6. having a pale green ground with a few brownish-red specks, and a close circle of spots of the same colour round the large end." "From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes: 'I have taken about half a dozen nests of this bird. They closely SILVER-EARED MESIAS. 31 resemble those of Liothrix lutea in eize and structure, and are similarly situated, but instead of having the egg-cavity lined with dark-coloured material, as that species has, all I found had light-coloured linings ; such was even the case with one nest I found within three or four yards of a nest of the other species." " The eggs are usually four in number.' " " Other eggs found by Mr. Gammie correspond with those given me by Dr. Jerdon. They are as like the eggs of L. lutea as they can possibly be, and if there is Phillipps's possession went to nest five times in his garden aviary, nearly, but never quite successfully rear- ing young. He has published a most interesting account of his experience, illustrated by a beautiful coloured plate of the two birds and an uncoloured plate of nests and egg, in The Avicultural Magazine, 2nd series, Vol. I., pp. 379-390, and Vol. II., pp. 36-45. The young of the first nest were fed from the crop on mealworms, small cockroaches, and wasp-grubs, and Mr. Phillipps thinks that "a garden of earwigs, woodlice, ants, etc., BLUE- WINGED SIVAS. any difference, it consists in the markings of the present species being as a body smaller and more speckled than those of L. lutea." "The six eggs that I have vary in length from 0.82 to 0.9, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.65." In its general habits, its confiding nature, its call-note and scolding-note or note of alarm, this bird is remark- ably like L. lutea. On several occasions I watched a pair in Mr. Seth-Smith's aviaries, and was much struck by the similarity in the behaviour of the two species. Its song, however, is very inferior, consisting only of five or six notes ;' these a-re clear and musical, but rather pall upon one when frequently repeated ; yet the bird is so beautiful and trustful that one can for- give it its lack of musical ability. In 1903 a pair of Silver-eared Mesias in Mr. Reginald would be of priceless value when such a species as the Mesia has to be reared." A young bird which died after leaving the nest was forwarded by Mr. Phillipps to Mr. Frank Finn, who has described it as follows : " The general hue above is smoky drab, with a well-marked black cap; the ear- coverts are silver-grey as in the adult Mesia, and the quills have light outside borderings, dirty cream-colour on the early primaries, passing into ochre yellow on the secondaries. The smoky drab colour extends on to the breast and flanks, but the throat and centre of the abdo- men are dull cream-colour, the throat verging slightly on yellow. There is a slight wash of olive-green on the back of the neck. Such little of the tail-feathering as has grown is dull black like the inner webs of the quills. The under tail-coverts are dull brick-red. The 32 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. bill is dull flesh-colour, horny at the tip and gape, and the legs, feet, and claws dull flesh-coloured also. The iris has apparently been brown." As Mr. Gates says that the young bird has the crown yellowish at first, Mr. Finn is inclined to conclude that this character is variable, but Mr. Phillipps thinks it possible that the difference of colour in the young may be sexual, and this certainly seems probable. The Silver-eared Mesia is rarely imported, and there- fore commands a high price. BLUE-WINGED SIVA (Siva cyanuroptera}. "Above yellowish-brown, passing to blue-grey towards the head, which is blue, and rufescent on the rump ; " This very pleasingly-plumaged Leiothrix is found in the Himalayas from Nepal to Bootan, and also in the hills of Assam. It is common near Darjeeling, from 3,000 to 6,000 feet, and has similar manners to the last, being found in considerable flocks, with a hurried and lively manner, flying from tree to tree, alighting about the middle, and then hopping and climbing up to the top- most branches, hunting for minute insects with a lively chirrup." (" Birds of India," Vol. II.. r>. 254.) In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds" we read: "The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the central regions of Nepal, and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in May and June. The nest is placed in REJKSIDED TITS. visible portion of the closed wing and tail cobalt-blue ; the secondaries, tertials, and tail tipped with white, and the outer tail feathers white internally ; beneath whitish, with a reddish-lake tinge, fulvescent on the flanks ; under tail-coverts pure white, forehead with a few faint black streaks. Bill dusky yellow ; legs fleshy ; irides brown." Jerdon. No sexual distinction has been indicated, but_that it exists seems probable from the fact that in 1877 Karl Jamrach sent Dr. Russ what he regarded as a pair ; un- fortunately, they arrived dead, so that the German aviculturist was unable to point out the differences (he probably returned them promptly). Jerdon observes : trees, at no great elevation above the ground, and is wedged in where three or four slender twigs make a convenient fork. A nest taken on June 2nd wais a large compact cup, measuring exteriorly 4.75 in diameter and 3.75 in height, and having a cavity 2.6 in diameter and 1.87 in depth. It was composed of fine stems of grass, dry leaves, moss, and moss- roots, bound together with pieces of creepers, roots,, and vegetable fibres, and closely lined with fine grass- roots. They by from three to four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad ovals, considerably pointed towards the small end, 0.85 in length by 0.6 in width, having a pale greenish ground pretty thickly speckled TRUE TITMICE. 33 and spotted, especially on the 'broader 'half of the egg, with a kind of brownish brick-red." " The nests of this species are very beautiful cups, very compact and firm, sometimes wedged into a fork, but more commonly suspended between two or three twigs, or sometimes attached by one side only to a single twig. They are placed at heights of from 4 to 10 feet from the ground in the branches of slender trees, and are usually carefully conceailed, places completely encircled by creepers being very frequently chosen. The chief materials of the nest are dead leaves, some- times those of the bamboo, but more generally those of trees ; but little of this is seen, as the exterior is generally coated with mosis, and the interior is lined first with excessively fine grass, and then more or less thinly "with black buffalo or horse hairs." An interesting article on this species, illustrated by a coloured plate, appeared in The Avicultural Maga- zine, 1st series, Vol. VIII., pp. 243-245, from the pen of Mr. E. W. Harper, a gentleman to whom English aviculturists are indebted for a knowledge of many of the rarer Indian birds. Mr. Harper regards the Liotrichince as more nearly related to the Babblers than the Tits, and in this opinion Mr. Finn agrees with him. I daresay they are right, but I am following the order of the list of the Zoological Society, which, rightly or wrongly, places them with the Tits. True Titmice (Parus). AZURE TITMOUSE (Parus cyaneus). Male Head, 'throat and under parts generally snow- white ; a deep blue streak from bill through eye to nape, joining a second broader streak from nape at back of ear-coverts ; upper surface beautiful azure blue, deepest on shoulders, middle of wings and tail ; clear 'blue on middle of back and upper tail-coverts, the latter feathers with white borders ; greater wing-coverts white ; secondaries broadly white-tipped, primaries and tail-feathers externally white-edged ; a central dark blue longitudinal streak down the breast ; bill greyish horn-brown ; feet leaden grey, iris dark brown. Female -Smaller and duller in colouring ; top of head grey-whitish ; streak from nape behind ear -coverts narrower ; 'breast -streak much reduced or wanting ; under parts less purely white, grey-bluish. Young with a greenish tint over the blue colouring, under surface dirty-white, inclining !to yellowish ; crown marked with a deep ash-grey circle ; nape and eyebrow stripe white, band on neck grey. Hab., North-eastern Europe and North Asia. Like our British Tits, this species nests in holes in the branches of trees, more especially willows, more rarely in deserted Woodpeckers' holes ; the nest, which is formed on the rotten wood, consists of the hair of hares and squirrels felted together, among which a few thin grass -stems are mingled. The clutch consists of ten or eleven eggs ; the young have been known to leave the nest as early as June llth. The food of this Tit, like those of other species, consists of all kinds of insects, seeds, and the kernels of various berries, the fleshy part being rejected. In the Gefiederte Welt for 1880 Dr. E. Schatz gives an account of two males of this lovely species which, contrary to what has been asserted, retained their brdsrht colouring throughout a cold winter in a cage. He kept two pairs in a large aviary with numerous other birds, especially Finches and Warblers. He says that, like the other Tits, they were so fond of baithing that as fast as fresh water was placed in the pan they would be in it splashing about until they looked quite black with the moisture. Their confiding behaviour and charming colouring rendered them a great source of pleasure to their owner. Mr. A. Kohlschein almost induced this species to go to nest in captivity ; they carried building materials into the nesting-place and then fetched them all out agadn ; the female seemed especially anxious to breed ; but, owing, as he supposes, to the proper insect-food not being available, they gave it up. Dr. Russ says that, when first imported, this Tit it* very delicate ; but with careful attention in acclimatis ing it, it becomes vigorous and long-lived. RED-SIDED TITMOUSE (Parus varius). Male Top of head deep glossy black with a broad isabelline yellow frontal band ; a narrower streak from the middle of crown to nape yellowish-white ; a broad, band from the bill along each side of the head bright isabeilline yellow ; nape-stripe black ; a broad bind from the bill, above the throat to nape, black; entire upper surface Wuieh ash-grey ; flights below slightly paler grey ; under wing-coverts whitish ; tail below much as above ; body below golden-brown, chestnut on the flanks ; bill 'black, feet bright blue, eyes black. The female has the band at the side of the head much paler, as well as the streak on the crown and the middle of upper breast and abdomen. Hab., Japan and Corea. In Seebohm's " Birds of the Japanese Empire," p. 86, are the following notes on this species: "The Japanese Tit is supposed to 'be only a summer visitor to Yezzo, whence there is an example in the Swinhoe collection obtained by Captain Blakiston at Hakodadi in April (Swinhoe, The Ibis, 1874, p. 155) ; but it is a resident in Hondo, whence there are four examples from Yokohama in the Pryer collection. " It has occurred in February in the Corean Peninsula, but it is not known whether it breeds there or not." (Tacza- nowski, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1887, p. 604.) " It is a favourite cage-bird with the Japanese. Its note is described as resembling that of the Little Wood- pecker. Like the other Tits it frequents the pines, but it is much less sociable and is generally seen alone or in pairs." (Jouy, Proc. United States, Nat. Mus., 1883. p. 287.) According to Russ this species has only twice been imported into Europe (but he seems to have overlooked the English Zoological Gardens) ; first in 1869 it reached the Zoological Gardens of Amsterdam, and then, in the spring of 1894, four pairs were received by Miss Hagen- beck of Hamburg. Of the latter, Dr. Russ secured a pair, and a second pair was purchased for the Zoological Gardens of Berlin. Dr. Russ fed his pair upon a soft food consisting of dried ants' eggs, grated carrot, breadcrumbs, hard- boiled egg, and a little crushed hemp ; upon this he says they thrive remarkably well. Although at first they would not touch any other kind of food and would not even accept mealworms, they gradually began to take many kinds of food. The kernels of the most diverse seeds were extracted, also the mealworm or some other insect a little beetle, bluebottle fly, etc. Fruit, chopped apple, as also cherries, thev took no notice of ; yet Dr. Russ says he has seen it pick up a cherry stone, the fruit of which had been eaten by another bird, and hamm-er awav at it with the object of getting at the kernel ; but he cannot say whether it ever succeeded in doing this ; he however later observed this Tit crack- ing open the seed of the large sunflower. As this pair carried a lot of nesting-material into a Hartz cage and sat therein continually, he imagined that he was going to breed the species ; but one fine day they bundled the whole lot on to the floor, and so disappointed his hopes. 34 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. WAGTAILS AND ALLIES (Motacillidce). PIED GRALLINA (Grallina australis). Jet black; head, throat, upper breast and back glossed with blue ; the first flights and tail with greenish ; an eyebrow stripe and a spot on each side of the neck pure white ; wings with a longitudinal white stripe ; second primary white tipped ; ruinp, upper tail-coverts and under wing-ccverte white ; tail white at, base and tip ; lower breast, sides, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white ; bill yellowish white ; feet black ; iris straw yellow. The female may be distin- guished by its white forehead, lores, and chin. Hab., Australia. Speaking of examples of this species Gould observes : " Those that came under my observation in New South Wales frequented alluvial flats, sides of creeks and rivulete. " Few of the Australian birds are more attractive or more elegant and graceful in (their) actions, and these, combined with its tame and familiar disposition, must ever obtain for it the friendship and protection of the settlers, whose verandahs and housetops it constantly visits, running along the latter like the Pied 'Wagtail of our own island. Gilbert states that in Western Australia he observed it congregated in large families oa the banks and muddy flats of the lakes around Perth, while in the interior he only met with it in pairs, or at most in small groups of not more than four or five together ; he further observes, that at Port Essington, on the north coast, it would seem to be only an occasional visitant, for on his arrival there in July it was tolerably abundant round the lakes and awamps, but from the setting in of the rainy season ia November to his leaving that part of the country in the following March not an individual was to be seen ; it is evident therefore that the bird removes from one locality to another according to the season and the more or less abundance of its peculiar food. I believe it feeds solely upon insects and their larvae, particularly grasshoppers and coleoptera. " The flight of the Pied Grallina is very peculiar unlike that of any other Australian bird that came ander my notice and is performed in a straight line with a heavy flapping motion of the wings. " Its natural note is a 'peculiarly shrill whining whistle often repeated. It breeds in October and November. " The nest is from Sin. to 6in. in breadth, and 3in in depth, and is formed of soft mud, which, soon becoming hard and eolid upon exposure to tihe atmc- sphere, has precisely the appearance of a massive clay- - VENTED BULBUL. offered to me, at what I should now consider a very hiLjh price, I did not hesitate to purchase it. Sub- sequently I bought a pair of a third species for just a third o-f the cost of my second Bulbul. Bulbuls are naturally chiefly frugivorous and in- sectivorous, but in confinement they readily take to the usual soft food mixtures, and will even live for a considerable time upon stale breadcrumbs, egg, and grated carrot, with a little fruit and chopped lettuce or rape seedlings for a change ; but to keep them in full health and song plenty of fruit daily is a necessity. Each bird will consume daily a quarter of an o: and an inch of banana or the equivalent in other fruit, such as pear, sweet apple, strawberries, ripr ti^s. or something of that kind. I have not found them Oi all ea-ger for grapes fruit in which some insecti- vorous birds greatly delight. BLACK BULBTTL (Pycnonotua pi/yam*). Also called the ''Bengal Red-vented Bulbul"; it is, in fact, only one of the local races of the Red-vent td .-pcries; these forms, though kept distinct in scientific works, are admitted to pass one into the other. In the present form the head, nape and back of neck, the chin, throat, and breast are glossy black; the ear-cm BULBULS. 35 rich glossy brown ; from the back of neck dark smoky brown, edged with ashy, which is the colour of the rump ;' upper tail-coverts white ; tail ''brownish black, tipped, with white excepting fhe two central feathers ; wings coloured like the back ; the shoulders and -wing- coverts edged with whitish, below from the breast 'backwards dark brown edged with ashy and merging into ash colour on the lower abdomen ; vent and under tail-coverts rich crimson ; bill and legs 'black ; iris of eye brown ; length 8f in. The Black Builbul inhabits " the lower ranges of the Himalayas from Kuma/on to the head of the Assam valley, Oudh, Northern Belhar, Bengal east of the longitude oi on. The sexes of this, and in fact all of the Bulbuls, cm lie readily distinguished by comparing the bills in profile ; that of the male is always shorter, deeper, and ;,r: o with more arched culmen (ridge) than that of the fe'iia!.-. In this character they are diametrically , 19C4, p. 237) says : " Certainly the commonest Bulbul, and perhaps the most numerous resident bird." But none of these gentlemen give us any information as to the habits of this "common" bird, and oddly enough. although a specimen reached the London Zoolog Gardens in 1895. Dr. Russ make.? no mention of it in his book; this is the more strange when one notes that he includes many species which have never been im- ported on the off-chance that they may be some day. It is, of course, probable that the habits of this species, its nest, and its egg>, are very similar to those of the Red-vented forms of India, and it is certain that its treatment in captivity ought to be the same, SYRIAN BULBUL (I'l/i'iiotuitu^ .rnnf/to/ii/i/n*). The head and upper part of the neck of the Syrian Bulbul are glossy blacK., sharply denned ; the upper surface of the body ashy dust brown, merging into umber brown on the primaries; the upper tail-coverts are also rather darker than the rest of the upper surface; the tail is umber brown, with rather paler tips to the feathers; the undi r surface is dull white stained with pale ashy brown t t h-,> eye is brown. According to Dres-er this Bnlbul is '' only found in the south-eastern portion of the western Pala-ai etic Region." It is very common in Palestine, where ('anon Tristram met with it in all parts of country, wherever woods or garden-; exist:';!. From .Jaffa to the Jordan. This bird, though somewhal shy, i rinest songster in Palestine, and consequently rightly earned the title of "the Par-si in:' XL It is very hardy, and ea-ily kept in rnnfnieaient : it is net naturally gre_aiious in its habit-, so that only a. sinu' >uld be kent in an which is very small and neat, i.s UMialk pi fork, or on a lateral branch of a tree, and the oul is foimed of materials to match it-s surroundings. The eggs, th:ee-t'") foui in number, are usually deposited in March or April, and are white, with faint underlying pnrpli-h shell-markings, and clearly-defined elm crimion spots. According to Wiener, this species has been bred in captivity in Germany, but I do not see that Dr. Ru?s mentions this; and it is his custom, when such an event has ta'-:en pi .ire, to give a detailed account of it, WlIITK-EARED Bui.BUL (T ijc nn ear-coverts and back of the cheeks white : the back of the neck rich brown, naiiowly banded with blackish; the upper surface of the body and wings earthy bi the edges of the feathers paler; the wings margined with pale ashy; the tail brown at the base, changing to black beyond the covei ts and tinped with \\ under surface whity-bn.-wn : the vent and under t til- coverts rich saffron yellow; the legs and bill ' the ilis of the eve m iwn. Mr. W. T. Blanfoid. in bis "Birds of Eastern Persia," says of thi< bi "The only representative in Persia of the tropical family of Pi/riiniint'irltt ; it abounds- in Balu- chistan and the southernmost portion of the I' 1 highlands, but not on the plateau far north of Shiraz. It, i Ktends f-ir into Mesopotamia, and I seen caned sp Karachi, s i id to broughl f;i:n Baghdad. Birds from Mesopotamia are highly este mcd in Sindh. because they s ,'n_,- fj, readily and finely in t onfinemeiit th:in those captured in V. !ia'; whether this is , and grass, covered with an outer layer of skeleton leaves, lichen, pieces of cloth, broad-leaved grasses or plantation bark, and compacted together with cob- weibe or silk from cocoons ; it is lined with hair and down, or fine roots. The- nest is usually built in clumps of moong grass about two or three feet from the ground, in bushes, tangled creepers, or thickets. The eggs, which vary from two to three, or very rarely four in number, are white with a pink tinge, marked especially at the larger end with various shades of red or purplish. I purchased a pair of this species in 1896, and turned them into a large flight-cage, where they agreed well excepting when choosing a roosting-place for the night, both sexes greatly desiring to sit next to the wires. Although the male was slightly larger, and had a far more powerful bill than the female, she always got her own way in the end. Although the song of the male consists only of a few flute-like notes, and the species is less confiding than the Bulbuls of the genus Pycnonotus, the form and colouring and the restless activity of these bird's are very fas-cinatins. Unhappily, my hen onlv liveo! about six months, and the cock bird died in less than a year on the 24th June, 1897. I suspect that I did not give them sufficient fruit. Wiener relates (" Cassell's Cage-Birds," p. 363) how a female of this species in his possession built, on several occasions, an artistic nest in a bush, laid three or four pink eggs with chocolate-coloured spots, and sat on them patiently ; but as there was no cock bird with it, of course they came to nothing. He, however, con- 40 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. eludes from this f.ict that Bulbuls should not be difficult to breed; but, beinu' aggressive birds, it would be uneafe to trust them in a mixed collection BROWN-EABED BULBUL die minis flavala). Cro\rn dusky slate-grey, crested ; remainder of upper surface ai . wings ami tail dusky; greater coverts and outer webs of secondaries margined with olive-yellow ; lores and a broad mcustachial streak from lower mandible black; ear-coverts silky brown ; i white; i)n..is;. si, his of body and thi_>hs a.shy grey; centre of abdomen greyish white; under tail-coverts white; bill black; feet dark plumbeous; iris 'dark reddish-brown. No .sexual difference has been de- scnUed, but d:mb:Iess the female lias a more slender bill than the male. Hab., Himalayas, from 5,003 to 4,000 feet, from between Simla and Musscorie eastwards to Bootan, and apparently to the head of the Assam valley. It is a.'so found in the Khasia hills, and the Kakhyen hills in Binmib. (Sharp* 1 .) According to Jerdon i" Birds of India," Vol. II., pp. 80-81), " It is not very rare near Darjeeling, at eleva- tions of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet. It associates in small parties, feeds both oa berries and insects, and has a loud warbling note.'' I have found no further notes on the wild habits. It is rarely imported : Russ states that three speci- mens reached the Landon Zoological Gardens in 1877; otherwise he knows of no other arrivals of this species in the trade. RUFOUS-BELLIED BULBUL (I oh' ma/l,Uandi}. Head brown, somewhat ere- ted, the .shafts of the feathers buti'y white ; remainder of upper surface dull olive-green ; ear-coverts brownish ; chin and throat white, wit.li dusky edges to the feathers; sides of neck, breast and abdomen light chestnut or cinnamon, with pale centres bo the feathers; flanks washed with olive; thighs and under tail-coverts olive-yellow, ;;H also under wing-coverts; bill blackish brown, lower mandible h ; feet fleshy brownish ; iris brownish red. No difference has been indicated between the sexes; but the young bird is .said to be rather duller, and washed with rufous on the scapularu, wing-i-overts and upper tail ; c : oyer'Ls ; under surface light chestnut ; abdomen whitish washed with dingv olive-yellow; lores, chin, and a mou-tachial line dull white, with grey-brown bases to the feathers. Hab., "Hill-ranges of the Himalayas, ranging eastwards into A a-: am, the Khasia, Aiacan. and Tipperah hills." (Sharpe.) Jerdon says I" Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 80), "fre- quents hiuh trees, lives chiefly on fruit, and has a loud ( heerfu'. a In Gates' s edition of Hume's "Nests and Iv>-s of Indian Birds" [Vol. I., pp. 168-9), we read: "The Rufous-bellied Bulbul, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, breed-s in the central region of Nepal and low- down _ nearly to the Terai, from April .to June. Its nest is a shallow saucer suspended between a slender horizontal] fork, to the twigs of which it is firmly bound like an Oriole's with vegetable fibres and roots. It is com '] ; ">d dry leaves bound together with fibres, and lined with fine grace or moss-roots. The bird is .siid to lay four eggs, but these are neither nor described. Dr. Scully writes from Nepal: "This Bulbul is common throughout the year on the hills round the valley of Nepal, but never tenants the central woods. It is generally found in bushes and bush-trees, not in high tree forest, and is commonlv seen in pairs. The breell- ing season appears to be May and June. A nest was taken on 6th June, which contained two fresh eggs. The nest was somewhat oval in shape, measuring 5.35in. in length and 2.5in. across ; the egg-cavity was about lin. deep in the centre, and the bottom of the nest 1.25in. thick. It was attached to a slender fork of a tree, and was composed externally of ferns, dry leaves, roots, grass, and a little moss, bound together with fine hair-like fibres, which were wound round the prongs o.f the fork so as regularly to suspend the nest like an Oriole's. There was a regular lining, distinct from th body of the nest, composed of fine, long, yellowish s stems, and a little cobweb was spread here and )' the fork and the outside of the nest. The eggs are rather long ovals, smaller at one end, and fairly glossy; they measure 1.0 by 0.7. and 0.97 by 0.7. The ground-colour is pure pinkish white, abundantly speckled and finely spotted with reddish purple, the spots closely crowded together at the large end, but not confluent, forming in - broadish /.one, and in the other a cap; in the latter e_rg there are a few faint underlying stains of purplish inky at the large er.d.'' Russ notes that three examples of this Bulbul arrived at our Zoological Gardens in 1877, but he appears not to have heard of any other importation of the species. YKI.LOW-CROWXED Bri.i TJL (Tra<-liyc.. natives ' Maki Boyah ' or 'Alligator ISird,' a, name give i to it from its snpposi d h-iln't of annoying the alligator." Beyond the fait that this species has 1 een met with 1.000ft. up Mount Kina Balu, I can obtain no further information respecting it. Dr. Russ does not mention it in his work, although a specimen was deposited at our Zoclog;e;il Gardens in 1893. SI>!>TTED-WIXG (I'.-tari.ijIo**'! fjiUojiti-ra). Above p ile leaden-grey speckled with brownish ; upper tail-coverts washed with reddish-brown; flights and primary-coverts greenish black ; a white spot at base of primaries; tail dark brown; chin and thio-i! deep chestnut; some of the feathers with grey tips; remainder of under surface white washed with rufous on abdomen and flanks ; bill deep horn-brown, with pale yellow edges to the mandibles, base of lower FRUIT-SUCKERS. 41 mandible somewhat reddish ; feet brown ; iris white. Female above brown, with greyish centres to feathers of head and back ; upper tail-coverts more rufescent ; lessor and median wing-coverts brown, with a subter- ininal ashy 'bar; greater coverts with a broader bur; bastard-wing and primary-coverts blackish ; flights black, edged with bronze-green ; primaries with a white spot at base, inner secondaries brown ; tail-feathers dark brown, slightly rufescent -below ; crown of head like the back ; lores and feathers round eye blackish ; ear-coverts blackish-brown ; cheeks and under surface dull white, partly washed with rufous ; throat, -breast and sides of body mottled with brown ; thighs dark brown ; under wing-coverts centred and edged with brown, those near edge of wing entirely dark brown ; axillaries brown at base ; bill black, dusky yellow at gape; feet black; iris white. Hab., Himalayas from Cashmere to Sikhim, Dacca, and Assam, through Burma to Tenasserim. Even up to 1890 this bird was associated with the Glossy Starlings, but in Gates' edition cf Hume's "Nebts and Eggs of Indian Birds," p. 162, we read : " The eggs are so different in character from those of all the Starlings that dou'bts might necessarily arise as to whether this species is placed exactly where.it ought to be by Jerdon and others. I possess at present only three eggs of this bird, which I owe to Captain Hutton. They are decidedly long ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and in shape and coloration not a little recall those of Myiophoneut femmincki. The eggs are glossless, of a greenish or greyish-white ground, more or less profusely speckled and spotted with red, reddish brown, and dingy purple. In two of the eggs the majority of the markings are gathered into a broad irregular speckled zone round the large end. In tha third egg there is just a trace of such a zone, and no markings at all elsewhere. In length thev vary from 1.03 to 1.08 and in breadth from 0.68 to 0.74." Jerdon writes of it : " It frequents the valleys, about Simla and Mussoores, up to 6,000 feet, lives in small flocks of five or *-ix ; ' its note and flight,' says Hutton, 'are very much like those of Stitrnus vulgaris, and it delights to perch on the very summit of the forest trees. I have never seen it on the ground, and its feed appears to consist of berries. It nidificates in the holes of trees, lining the cavity with bits of leave.? cut by itself ; the eggs are usually three to five, of a delicate pale sea green, speckled with blocd-like stains, which sometimes tend to form a ring near the larger end.' Dr. Adams says that it frequents rice fields, or the sides of moun- tain streams, and that it is shy and timid." ('' Birds of India," Vol. II., pp. 336-7.) In July. 19G2, Mr. E. W. Harper, who also presented this bird to cur Zoological Gardens, wrots to offer me a specimen, which reached me on August 1st. Mr. Harper informed me that he considered its affinity to the Starlings very doubtful, and this naturally incited me to try to discover, by watching its habits in cap- tivity, what birds it most closely resembled. Mr. Harper had already pointed out that it was " a hopping bird, and did not use its mandibles as dividers after the manner of Starlings." I fed the -bird as I do other fruit-eating species, but it was very weak, and not in particularly good plumage ; nevertheless, it was easy to see that it in no respect behaved like a Starling. It always flew direct to the feed vessel, and immediately began to feed, piercing the fruit with slightly-opened mandibles, between which the tongue was alternately inserted and retracted ; it ate very little soft food, but the whole of the fruit supplied to it. In all these points its behaviour corresponded exactly with that of a Bulbul, and, in an article which I published in The Avicitltural Maijazinv, for December, Ib02, I expressed the belief that its right- ful place was with that group of birds. Unhappily the bird did not gain strength, but died on September 25th ; I therefore sent the body to the Natural History Museum, in order that Mr. Pycraft might study its anatomy, and thereby decide as to its natural position. I was much interested to hear that be decided in favour of its relationship to the Bulbuls. Knowing that Colonel Charles Bingham was familiar with the species in its native haunts, I asked him, without stating my own belief, what he considered the Spotted-wing to be. His reply was: "Undoubtedly a Bulbul ; it agrees with the Bulbuls in almost all its actions when at liberty." I therefore do not hesitate to place the Spotted-wing here, instead of among the Starlings. Chloropsis. Although this genus seems somewhat related to the Bulbuls, its members are so utterly dissimilar, both in colouring and form, that I have always objected to calling them Bulbuls. In general aspect they remind one of the Honeysuckeis, and for this reason 1 proposed (" Foreign Bird-keeping," Part 1, p. 17) to ca.ll them Fruit-suckers. As I then pointed out, they were formerly placed in tha Mdiphagidce by Bonaparte and Gray, and were regarded by Blyth as somewhat allied to the Honeysuckers, though structurally they are much nearer to the Bulbuls. Mr. Frank Finn (The Avicultural Magazine, 1st ser., Vol. VIII., p. 86) proposes, three years later, that they shall be called " Harewa," a name by which they are known to the natives in India (but which to us has no meaning) ; meanwhile my name for these birds has caught on, and is now very generally adopted. Mr. Finn ccnnders these birds to be a link between the true Bulbuls and the Babblers. With regard to the feed for the species of Chlcropsis, Mr. Finn says they " are very easy to keep, devouring soft fruit and insects with equal avidity, and hipping up sweetened milk-sop with great gusto." Some years ago I knew a gentleman who spent much money in importing these birds, which he fed exactly in the manner above suggested, and speedily lost them all. The late Mr. Abrahams, who saw them with me, said that the milk-sop treatment never suited them, but that they did well upon potato and egg chopped up together, with fruit and a few mealworms. That which suffices to keep a bird in health in India does not answer at all in this country, or we might keep half our in ectivorous birds upon peameal and maggots, which (according to what Jerdon tells us) seem to be, to all intents and purposes, the staple foods for Indian insectivorous birds. In any case, a com- bination of milk and more or less acid fruit, dees not commend it- elf to me as a likely food to keep a delicate bird in health, consequently I should not try it myself, particularly after seeing how speedily three or four lovely specimens of Chlcrojisis became ill, and died when thus fed. Although I have on several occasions had the chance of purchasing at least two species of Chloropsis, the deaths which I had heard of made me nervous of giving the necessarily high price for these lovely birds, or 1 should certainly have fed them precisely as I do my other fruit-eating inaectivors. 42 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. GOLD-FRONTED FRUIT-SUCKER (Chloropsis aurifrcns). " A bird whose general hue is the brightest grass- green, relieved by a patch of shining turquoise blue on the ' shoulder ' of each wing, displayed when the bird is excited. The sides of the face and the throat and fore- neck are black, and the centre of the throat, right up to the beak, rich bright blue. The forehead is fiery orange, and a yellow zone borders the black throat below, ex- tending more or less faintly up the sides thereof. The hen is said to be less brilliant in colour, but all the birds I have seen looked much alike. Her mouth is said to be biown. while that of the cock is bluish grey, and this may afford a means of distinction. Young birds have no black or gold on the head and only a moustache of seldom laying before the end of May or beginning of June, and its eggs may be found well on into the middle of August, as on the 16th of this month I once took two fresh eggs. The earliest date on which I have seen eggs- was the 12th of May, 1891. The nest appears to be very like that of C. jerdoni (Hume, ' Nests and Eggs,' 2nd edit., Vol. I., p. 155), but I have eeen very few of this 'bird's nests, and judge principally from the accounts in the book just referred to. " Amongst other birds'-nests to which it nearly ap- proximates are those of the genus Hemixus, the nests of that genus differing principally in being more bulky and less tidy. It is generally placed in a semi-pendant posi- tion in a small horizontal fork, the supporting twig? - U GOLD-FRONTED FRUIT-SUCKER. blue." Frank Finn, I.e. Jerdon, says that " the femal3 has the black of the neck of smaller extent, and wants the golden forehead."* Hab., " Sub-Himalayan region from Dehra Doon to Sikhim, extending into Lower Bengal. It also occurs through Aracan, Assam, and Burmah, to Tenasserim and Cambodia." Sharpe. All that Jerdon says about the bird's habits is : "I procured it in Sikhim up to 4,000 feet or so. It has a sweet song, and, like the others, when caged, is quite a mocking bird." "Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 100. Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker (The Ibis, 1895, pp. 222-4) gives the following full account of the nidification of the species : ' : This bird is one of the late breeders, * I think this is incorrect, though the forehead may perhaps be paler in the female. coming outside the sides of the nest, which does not hang from them as does an Oriole's. The fork chosen is usually one on the outer branches of some small tree or sapling, less often in a stout fork of some larger tree, and I have never seen a nest placed on the upper surface of a large bough in the manner that C. jerdoni is said sometimes to build. " In shape the nest is a rather shallow cup, measuring in outward diameter from 6.bin. to about 4m., and in depth from 1.3in. to l.Sin., the latter depth being un- usual, it generally being imder l^in. The inner portion is made of very fine twigs and coarse grass-stems, more or less mixed with moss-roots and the tendrils of con- volvuli and other creepers, and sometimes with stalks of the common maiden-hair fern. The whole of this is FRUIT-SUCKERS. 43 bound together, and also more or less interwoven, with soft grasses, dead scraps of moss, and a material which appears to be the inner bark of some tree. Further strength is added by means of cobwebs, a very large amount of this material being used in a few nests. The nest, when not in an upright fork, is verv firmly fixed, although not much oi the material of which the nest is composed is actually wound round the supporting twigs. I have seen one or two nests with a little live moss in- corporated with the other materials, giving to them an appearance much like small neat nests of Hypsipelia psar aides. The eggs, which are usually two in number, sometimes three, vary in ground-colour from a pale pink, so faint as to appear white, to a rather warm pink, though eggs at all de-eply tinted are the exception, \lost eggs are marked with small specks and spots of a deep reddish brown, and also with irregular lines and streaks of the same colour, often so dark as to appear black if only casually examined. In most eggs the specks and spots appear to be the predominating form of markings, but in others the lines predominate, and in one egg I possessed nearly all the markings were of this character. Whatever they may be, however, they are not numerous, and are mostly confined to the larger end, where they often form a zone. Another type of egg has all the marks, of whichever kind, blurred and fainter, looking as though someone had tried to wash the eggs and by so doing caused the colour of the markings to become paler and at the same time to run, giving the egg a mottled surface, not unlike a weakly-marked egg of Criniger flaveolus. " Most eggs are long in shape, some very regular ovals, and others decidedly pointed. The shell is close- grained, smooth, and delicate, and in the majority of cases shows a faint gloss, seldom at all pronounced. Fifteen eggs taken in North Cachar average 0.94in. by 0.65in., but deducting the three largest, which are ab- normallv large, and which were brought to me by a Naga with one of the parent birds, the remaining twelve average only 0.91in. by 0.63-5in. They vary in length between 0.86in. and l.lin., and in breadth between 0.62in. and 0.69in. This bird makes its nest in trees on the outskirts of forest or in small thickets in nullahs surrounded by grass-land, never, so far as I know, inside heavy forest." According to Russ, this bird was first brought alive to Europe in October, 1873, and was sent to the Berlin Zoological Gardens ; in 1874 it first reached the London Zoological Gardens, and in 1875 the late Mr. Wiener secured two examples ; in the same year Miss Hagen- beck received several specimens. Since that date a few have from time to time reached the various dealers in London and on the Continent, and a few have been im- ported privately ; they have always commanded toler- ably high prices on account of their beauty and clear, cheerful notes. MALABAR FRUIT-SUCKER (Chloropsis malabarica). The cock bird is deep grass-green ; the face, enclosing the eye, the chin, and throat, velvety black ; a shining hyacinth-blue stripe on the cheek ; forehead rich golden, merging into the green of the crown ; wings with a bright turquoise-blue shoulder patch and a trace of the same on the margin, followed by a streak of hyacinth blue ; inner webs of quills brown, those of the secon- daries suffused with green towards the tips ; under surface of tail greenish grey ; bill blackish, legs slaty- bluish ; iris of eye brown. The hen is somewhat smaller, has a green forehead, its throat-patch and cheek- stripe are more contracted, and its bill is less black. Hab., Southern and Central India and Ceylon, but rarer in that island than in India. In its wild state thi? beautiful bird is usually seen in the more open parts of the forest, on the highest and the lateral branches of moderately sized trees, or at the outskirts of "patma" woods and the jungle surrounding tanks ; it is usually met with in small flocks. It hops and flies actively from branch to branch, uttering its shrill piping note as it seeks for insects ; it also eats a good deal of fruit, but seems to prefer the former diet. Its nest is firmly suspended by silky fibre between the fork of a bough ; this fibre also forms part of the outside of the nest, which is lined with dried bents and hairs ; the eggs are elongated, creamy white, spotted, blotched and lined with light pinky brown, purplish or blackish markings. Herr Wiener speaks highly of the song of this bird ; on the other. hand, Bourdillon says, "The male makes an attempt to sing, uttering a few notes something" like those of the Bronzed Drongo," and Captain Legge adds that it " gives vent to a series of chirps, which, combined, rni-ke up a short little warble." I have heard it sing charmingly ; the tcne certainly reminds one of that of the Drongos. Of late years this beautiful bird has been much more freely imported than formerly ; therefore its price has become more reasonable, but it is still by no means a cheap bird. The female of this Green Fruit-sucker is rarely im- ported ; but about the beginning of 1897 (if my memory does not deceive me) my friend Mr. James Housden, of Sydenham, had three or four examples of the so-called "Green Bulbul" brought over for him. It is quite likely that these were examples of Chloropsis aurifrons- and that an example which I then supposed might be a female of C '. jerdoni was a young bird in which the- black of the throat was undeveloped : the two species were long confounded by aviculturists. To keep this bird in health in confinement a certain number of insects or their larva? are necessary. Where other less stimulating forms of insect life cannot be obtained, mealworms will answer the purpose, provided that the bird will accept them. Ripe oranges, split sweet-water grapes, or banana should alwavs be in the cage, or, at any rate, some form of sweet ripe fruit, and as an addition to the diet I should recommend egg chopped up with potato, as well as some good insec- tivorous food, mixed with twice its bulk of breadcrumbs- and slightly damped. BLUE-WINGED FRUIT-SUCKER (Chloropsis hardwickii). Dr. Jerdon gives the following account of the bird : " Male above green ; the head and neck tinged with yellowish, and a brilliant smalt-blue moustachial streak ; shoulder of the wings verdigris blue ; wings and tail fine violet or purple ; throat and fore-neck black, pass- ing into glossy dark purple on the breast ; abdomen rich orange saffron. " Females want the black neck and throat ; the moustachial streak is less vivid, and the lower parts- are more mixed with green. " Bill black ; legs plumbeous ; irides light brown. Length, 8 inches ; extent, 12 ; wing, 3f ; tail, 3 ; bill at front, 11-16 ; tarsus, f . " This beautiful bird is found in the south-east Himalayas, from Nepal to Bootan, spreading south to the hill ranges of Assam, Sylhet, and Arrakan. In Sikhim I found it from 2,000 feet upwards, most common about 4,000 feet. It has a fine song and the usual habits of the genus." Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker (The Ibi*. 1895, p. 224) says: " There is hardly anything to say about the nidification- of this species which I have not already said of C. 44 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. aurifron*. I have seen very few nests, and of these it can only be remarked that two were deeper than any I have seen of that bird, cue measuring over 1.8in. and the other 2.05in. It builds in the same sort of position also, but selects, higher trees, and I have not. taken any nest below 25ft.. and one or two from very much more lofty sites, whereas ('. aitri/'r-*i* could not possibly be distinguished from those of C. aurifron*, and differ from these of C. ji rrloni only in their much greater size, averaging, as they do, O.Qlin. by 0.61in. I have one among these seven which is exceptionally large, suring 1.05in. by O.Tin., and it is \v: rtliy of note that I shouxl have found abnormally lar^e both of (.'. rnirii'r,ni.< a; d C. Jxi n! irlcl-ii , the n especially as I have seen but very small series, of both.' 1 Between the years 1879, when a single example cf this species reached the London Zoological Can liuss static that no specimens were imported until 18S4. when ('. I'os/. of Cologne, received a ! siunment ; whether any of these specimens were for- warded to the London market I don't know, but shortly afterwards we began to see examples at our bird shows. One specimen seems to have come into the hands of Herr F. Weber, who fed it upi.n soft, sweat, co pears, highly sweetened rice and mealworms. It refused ants' cocoons, and looked with disdain at raw meat. but delighted in egg-plums and soft, sw;vt finite generally. In Tin' Artniltural Maij(r.'n;.<- for 1897 Mr. Russell- Humphrys has given an interesting account of his lovely and well-known example of this species. Accord- ing to him it is of no use to offer mealworms t:> ( '. hnnl- irii'kii, as it will not touch them ; though it is clever in catching Mies. Mr. Humphrys also advo the use of banana in preference to orange as an article cf diet ; his example is a very clever mimic, bin is a well-known characteristic of the species of i 'hloropsis, and therefore not surprising. 'I he- article is well illustrated by a coloured plate by Frohawk. CHAPTKR V. BLUE-WINGED FRUIT-SU.JKKI;. BABBLERS ( ' 'rateropodidv. j. The Bulbuls, which Dr. Sharp? places in his expanded T'tmi'liirhe, aie called by him Bubbling Thrushes: he places the Mocking-birds and Bower-birds in the game family; but in all their habits the Mocking-birds seem to me to be true Thrushes, while the Bower-birds are aberrant Crows ; with a few modifications., therefore. I prefer to follow the Zoological Society's list. The Jay-Thrushes (I>i'i/nii'. s. MASKED JAY-THRFSH (Dryonastis perspicillatus}. Front of head to above eye, side.s of head including rheeks and ear-coverts black ; remainder of upper sur- face dull greyish-brown ; wings somewhat darker ; the flights with greyish margins to the outer webs; tail- feathers black-brown ; the two central ones and the basal half of the others clear brown ; body below brown- ish-white ; the abdomen and under tail-coverts bright yellowish rust-red ; bill black-brown ; feet brownish flesh-coloured ; iris dark brown. The female is rather smajller and has a shorter bill. Hab., South China- According to Pere David, it is a resident species and is abundant in the vicinity of human dwellings and on fields in the plains which are dotted over with groups of trees, scrub, and bamboo-jungle, but never in dense woods. It seeks its food on the ground, along the hedges which enclose fields and under the bamboos : this consists principally of insects, as well as all kinds of fruits and seeds ; moreover it pursues small bi^ds in order to kill and eat them. Its screaming, unpleasing song is continually to be heard. Mr. F. W. Ryan, in a paper on the birds of the lower Yangtse Basin (The Ibis, 1891, p. 334) says: "A common resident, frequenting thick cover and" bamboo- copses on the plains." Messrs. La Touche and Rickett " on the nesting of Birds in Fohkien " (The Ibis, 1906, p. 28) say. " We have taken but four nests o.f this common resident. There are two, or perhaps three, broods in the season, as we have taken eggs as late as July llth. " A nest found on May 9th was placed in a large thorny bush eight or ten feet from the ground. It was composed of hard wiry tendrils, within which was a layer of dead leaves, and then a layer of straw, that showed conspicuously all round the edge, giving the nest the curious appearance of having a straw binding. The lining was of pine-needles. Another nest, built in a small tree, was composed of coarse grass, roots, and a few small twigs, lined with fine dry grass. " The nests are 6in. or Tin. in external diameter, 4in. in internal diameter. In depth they are 4in. externally and 2in. to Sin. internally. "Eight eggs average l.lOin. by .85in. ; they are- delicate greenish white in colour and, as a rule, very glossy, but the texture is uneven ; in shape they are more or less oval. There are three or four eggs in a clutch." In his ' : Field-Notes on the Birds of Chekiang " (The Ibis, 1906, pp. 438-9), Mr. J. D. D. La, Touche says: "Abundant and resident. It breeds in the bamboo- copses round about the villages and also in the reed- beds. The nests which I have seen in the former were- all placed on bamboos at a considerable height from the ground twelve feet at least. Two half-torn-down and deserted nests fb'und on June 10th in a patch of reeds were about five feet from the ground ; one contained three slightly incubated eggs, the other was empty. Fresh eggs were brought to me on June 21st, July llth, and July 13th, so that no doubt two broods are reared here. The Chinkiang nests which I have seen resemble tho'^e taken at Foochow, but ten eggs taken at Chin- kiang are much larger than Foochow eggs. They average 1.14in. by 0.86in. The largest is 1.20in. by 0.86in., the shortest l.OTin. by 0.85m." Dr. Russ observes that this Jay-Thrush is one of the moat infrequent to- appear in the European bird-market and only comes- extremely rarely to the large Zoological Gardens (London Gardens, 1878) ; nevertheless in the year 1884 it was advertised several times by English dealers in the Gefitde.rte Welt. COLLARED JAY-THRTTSH (Garrulax picticollis). Upper surface grey-brown washed with cinnamon, bat indistinctly ; the innermost secondaries and centra] tail-feathers indistinctly transversely barred ; back of neck strongly washed with golden cinnamon, diffused ; outer secondaries and primaries with black inner webs, the primaries with their outer webs becoming increasingly white outwardly, the outermost being 46 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. * i most entirely so, but the innermost golden brownish changing to grey towards the tips ; all the outer tail- feathers broadly banded with black towards the tips which are grey internally, broadly white externally ; lores sordid whitish ; a distinct pure white eyebrow streak, below which a black streak runs above the ear-coverts to the sides of neck, which are also black ; ear-coverts ash}' white with blackish shaft-streaks, the outermost iow black broadly tipped with white, forming an ill- defined irregular bar ; moustachial streak black ; under- jparts white, the feathers of throat and chest faintly tipped with huffish ; a broad undulated black belt from aides of neck across the chest, behind which the white feathers are more deeply stained with huffish* ; sides of body cinnamon ; under tail-coverts huffish ; under sving-coverts white washed with pale cinnamon ; bill with upper mandible blackish-horn ; lower mandible slightly paler, more flesh-coloured changing to white at base ; feet greyish horn-coloured ; iris bright chest- nut. Female slightly smaller, and with a shorter and more slender bill. Hab.. China. The late Consul Swinhoe, who originally described and named this bird, tells us that he found in its stomach smooth caterpillars, grasshoppers, seeds, and the pulp of fig-like berries. Messrs. Rickett and La Touche (The Il/is, 1897, pp. 504-5), say: "We found this species common at Ching Feng Ling. The birds were always in p.irties, frequenting underwood in all forests or detached clumps of trees. " They appear to feed chiefly on the ground, and one of us obtained a good view of some when thus engaged. They were scattering the dead leaves about, and peck- ing vigorously at the earth. The blows dealt at the earth were extraordinarily powerful, the bird raising itself to the full stretch of its legs and bringing its beak down like a pickaxe, at the same time dropping i.s wings down by its sides. "When disturbed they invariably took to the trees, calling with clear and very melodious notes, and rapidly disappeared from sight. Wounded birds uttered loud harsh cries, and ran through the cover with great speed. " We obtained twenty-five specimens, and note a good deal of variety in the colour of the ' necklace,' which varies from pale ash to dark iron-grey and black, these colours being often mixed and shading into one another. " Young birds are much smaller than the old ones. They want the white streaks on the ear-coverts, and the 'necklace,' where it crosses the chest, is narrow, "blackish, and unbroken. Their irides are pale straw- colour, while in the old birds it is usually crimson. "t In The Ibis for 1899, p. 180. Mr. La Touche says: " Although we obtained breeding examples at Kuatun during the last expedition, we failed to find the nest. A large flock was met on the 20th March in a wood close to the river in the Kienyang district, so that this bird may be said to be an inland species occurring in mountainous wooded country at all altitudes, probably all over South-west Chekiang, Western Fohkien, and N.E. Kwangtung." Dr. Russ spoke of this as "one of the very rarest imported foreign birds living in our possession," but if this is true as regards the German market it is not so in England. The Zoological Society received its fi>st example from the Paris Jardin d'Acclimatation in 1873, hut the Berlin Gardens did not obtain one until twenty years later. I * In DIM i I d>. -scribed the underparts of tbis bird as "mostly yellowish-brown," so that it would seem that this is a characteristic of the young bird. t A slight exifrgeration if my bird was a normal specimen ; the eye is a bright chestnut-red. purchased a specimen in 1900 (January 26th), and it lived in my possession in perfect health, and, after it had been transferred to a sufficiently large cage, in per- fect plumage, until January 16th/ 1907, when it was unaccountably taken ill and died two days later. It fed well to the last. Although after a time this bird became wonderfully tame, and would readily take insects from one's fingers, it cannot be recommend'ed as a pet. Its song is a harsh sort of chattering, and its note when it wants anything or desires to be noticed is an incessant irritating plain- tive whistle rapidly repeated ; when hungry it utters a harsh note something like Wr-rl-.' repeated with a short interval four or five times. It is, however, a strikingly handsome bird, and when breaking up a mouse its businesslike manner oi raising itself high on its legs and digging at it with its powerful bill is amusing ; it will eat any amount of cockroaches, swallowing even the largest down whole after giving them a single dig with its bill. Towards the end of its life I suppose my bird must have become more contented, for his irritating whistle became more and more rare, so that sometimes it was not heard for months together. I remember Mr. Full- James telling me that he was obliged to get rid of a specimen which he once had because the neighbours complained of the noise. They would if the bird was anywhere where they could hear it. I hardly know which is the more unbearable the miserable whistling of a Collared Jay-Thrush, or the everlasting measured Hoo, hoo, hoo (literally repeated hundreds of times) of a male Wonga-Wonga Pigeon. WHITE-CHESTED JAY-THRTJSH (Garrulax leurolofJni*). Head, neck, and breast white, washed with ashy-grey on the nape and back of neck ; a black streak from upper mandible through the eye to the ear-coverts : re- mainder of plumage rufous-brown washed with oliva- ceous, and becoming more chestnut at its junction with the white ; tail darker ; flights and tail with dusky inner webs ; bill black ; feet leaden grey ; iris red- brown to brownish-yellow. Hab., Himalayas from the far north-west to Bootan, and thence through the Khasia hills to Arrakan. (Jerdore from Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. I., pp. 47, 48 : - "According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Himalayan White-crested Laughing-Thrush breeds at various eleva- tions in Sikhim and Nepal, from the Terai to an eleva- tion of 5,000 or 6,000 feet, from April to June. It lays four to six eggs, which are described and figured as pure white, very broad ovals, measuring 1.2 by 0.9. It breeds, we are told, in small trees, constructing a rude cup-shaped nest amongst a clump of shoots, or between a number of slender twigs, of dry bamboo-leaves, creepers, scales of the turmeric plant, etc., and lined with fine roots." According to Mr. Gammie, "The eggs are usually four JAY-THRUSHES. 47 or five in number, but on several occasions I have found as few as two well-set eggs." The author observes : " Numerous nests of this species have been sent me, taken in May, June, and July, at elevations of from 2,000 to fully 4,000 feet, and in one case it is said 5,000. They are all very similar, large, very shallow cups, from 6 to nearly 8 inches in external diameter, and from 2.5 to 3.5 in height ; ex- teriorly all are composed of coarse grass, of bamboo - .spathes, with occasionally a few dead leaves inter- mingled, loosely wound round with creepers or. pliant twigs, while interiorly they are composed and lined with black, only moderately fine roots or pliant flower- stems of some flowering-tree, or both. Sometimes the exterior coating of grass is not very coarse ; at other times bamboo-spathes exclusively are used, and the nest seems to be completely packed up in these." According to Russ, this species is rare in the trade ; it reached the Zoological Gardens of London and Amsterdam in 1876 ; scon afterwards Messrs. E. Linden and E. von Schleototendal secured specimens. The former gentleman observes : " I received this bird from Jamrach of London as a Crested Pekoe, with the in- formation that it was a good singer. Now, if one does not take the matter of song literally, but accepts _in its -place an unsatisfactory vocal organ, that assertion is justifiable. Its perpetual restlessness and constant movement is, as it were, accompanied by a subdued murmuring, somewhat as in the case of a person who has a habit of humming something to himself. The loud tones most nearly resemble a quickly jerked out laugh, and this passes into a loud rattle." In nine cases out of ten, if a dealer goes out of his way to praise the song of a bird in order to dispose of it to a customer one may expect to be disappointed. WHITE-THROATED JAY-THRUSH (Garrulax albogularis). Upperside olivaceous-brown ; forehead yellowish- brown ; lores and a streak below the eye black ; flights darker brown with naler inner margins ; tail-feathers greenish-brown, with black-brown bands and broad white margins ; the two central ones uniformly greenish-brown ; angle of lower mandible and throat white ; upper breast dull greenish-brown ; remainder of under surface yellowish rust-coloured ; the sides and under tail-coverts deeper in colour ; bill black-brown ; feet horn-grey ; irides bluish-grey. The female only differs as usual. Hab., Himalayas generally from Bootan to Simla ; more common in the North-west than in the East. " It prefers rather high elevations, from 6,000 to 9,000 feet and upwards ; lives in large flocks, feeding mostly on the ground, among bamboos and brush-wood, and every now and then screaming and chattering, but not so loudly or discordantly as some of the others. Hutton, who says that it is very common at Mussooree, found the nest ' about seven or eight feet from the ground, of woody tendrils, twigs, fibres, or ab times of grass and leaves, and with three beautiful shin- ing green eggs.' It is not very common at Darjeeling, and is not found below 6,000 or 7,000 feet." Jerdon, 'Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 39. In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds" we read : "The White-throated Laugih- mg-Thrush ibreeds throughout the lower southern ranges of the Himalayas from Assam to Afghanistan at eleva- tions of from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. They lay from the com- mencement of April to the end of June. The nest varies in shape from a moderately deep cup to a broad shallow saucer, and from 5 to 7 or even 8 inches in external diameter, and from less than 2 to nearly 4 inches in depth internally. Coarse grass, flags, creepers, dead leaves, moss, moss- and grass-roots, all at times enter more or less largely into the composition of the nest, which, though sometimes wholly unlined, is often neatly cushioned with red and black fern and moss- roots. The nests are placed in small bushes, shrubs, or trees, at heights of from 3 to 10 feet, sometimes in forks, but more often, I think, on low horizontal branches, between two or three upright shoots. " There is, I think, the regular complement of eggs, and this is the number I have always found when the eggs were much incubated. I have not myself observed that this species breeds in company, nor can 1 ever remember to have taken two nests within 100 yards of each other." Dr. Russ says that " although this is one of the birds most rarely brought to Europe, it occasionally reaches Zoological Gardens. In the year 1876 it was already in the London Gardens, and at the present time the Zoo- logical Gardens of Berlin possess it." " Fremdlan- dischen Stubenvogel," Vol. II., p. 232. BLACK-GORGETED JAY-THRUSH (Garrulax pectoralis). Above pale olivaceous-brown, washed with rust- reddish on back and rump ; nape and hind neck bright rust-reddish ; flights with ashy margins ; lateral tail- feathers banded with black and white ; a narrow white eyebrow stripe ; lores, cheeks and ear-coverts greyish or white (sometimes black) enclosed by two narrow black lines from base of bill, which unite behind into a broad band on the sides of the neck and expand into a gorget on the upper breast ; chin white ; neck, throat, breast, and sides of abdomen usually pale fulvous or bright rust-coloured ; middle of lower abdomen, and sometimes the throat and breast white ; bill bluish horn- coloured ; feet greenish lead-coloured ; irides brown, onbital skin dull leaden. Jerdon observes that " this species varies a good deal (according to the locality) in the markings on the ear-coverts, which in some are black, in others white mixed with black, and in some the pectoral band is obsolete. Specimens from the Himalayas have usually the ears silver-grey, whilst those from Arrakan have them black and grey in every gradation. It is found in the Himalayas, extending through Assam into Burmah." " Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 40 (cf. The Ibis, 1903, p. 587). In Hume's "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd ed., pp. 45, 50, we read: "Mr. Gates tell us that he ' found the nest of the Black-gorgeted Laughing-Thrush in the Pegu Hills, on the 27th April, containing three fresh eggs ; the bird was sitting. The nest was placed in a bamboo-clump about 7ft. from the ground, made outwardly of dead bamboo-leaves and coarse roots, lined with finer roots and a few feathers ; inside diameter 6in., depth 2in. Two eggs measured 1.04 by 0.83 and 0.86. Colour, a beautiful clear blue.'* " A nest sent me from Sikhim, where it was found in July, contained much larger eggs, and more in pro- portion to the size of the bird. The nest I refer to was placed in a clump of bamboos about 5ft. from the ground. It was a tolerably compact, moderately deep, saucer-shaped nest, between 6 and 7 inches in diameter^ composed of dead bamboo-sheaths and leaves bound to- g-ether with creepers and herbaceous stems, and thinly lined with roots. It contained two eggs. These are rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end ; of a uniform pale greenish blue, and are fairly glossy These eggs measured 1.33 and 1.30 in length, and 0.98 in breadth." Dr. Russ says that this is one of the very rarest birds * Mr. Hume thinks one of the ee?a rather small for the size of the bird, and Mr. Gates observes :-" I fear I may have made a mistake in identi ying the nest referred to." 48 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. in the trade : and that, to his knowledge, only a single example has been imported living to the Berlin Gardens, where it still is ; he evidently overlooked the fact that two specimens arrived at the London Gardens in April, 1890. STRIATED JAY-THRUSH (Gramma'optila stria/a). Above rufous-hrown Avith white shaft-streaks; heal more umber-brown ; wings redder, tai] almost chest- nut ; outermost primaries with ashy outer margins ; under surface paler, with yellowish-white shaft-streaks, those on abdomen wider ahd longer than those on the back ; bill black ; feet dull leaden ; irides red-brown. Hab., Bootan to Nepal; common at Darjeehng from about 6.000 to 9,000 feet, according to Jerdon. He makes the following remarks about the species (" Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 12) : ''This bird has a remarkably strong and Jay-like bill, and Avas originally described as a Jay by Vigors. In its mode of coloration it ap- proaches some of the Garrula.r series, viz., TrocAa- lopteron liiimium, and T. iinlricatum." "It frequents the dement thickets, in pairs, or in small and scattered parties. It has some very peculiar calls, one of them not unlike the clucking of a hen Avlrich has just laid an egg. I found both fruit and insects in the stomach of those Avhich I examined, chiefly the latter." The follo.viiu n tes are from Hume's "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds." 2nd eel., Vol. I., p. 67: The Striated Laughing-Thrush." remarks Mr. Blyth. "builds a compact Jay-iikr Qst. The eggs are spotless blue,_a5 shown by one of Mr. Hodgson's drawings in the British Museum." "A nest of this species found near Darjeehng in July was placed on the branches of a large tree, at a height of about 12ft. " It was a huge shallow cup. composed mainly of moss, bound together with stems of creepers and fronds of a Selaginella, and lined Avith coarse roots and broken pif-es of drv grass. A few dead leaves were incor- porated in the body of the nest. The nest was about 8 or 9 inches in dial < about 2 in thickne.:r,,_the broad, shallow, saucer-like cavity leing about an inch in depth. " The nest contained two nearly fresh eggs. The eggs appear to be rather peculiarly shaped. They are mode- rately elongated ovals, a good deal pinched out and pointed towards the small end. in the same manner (though in a less degree) as those of some PloA-ers, Sni;>e, etc. I do not know Avhether this is the typical shape of this egg, or whether it is an abnormal peculiarity of the eggs of this particular nest. The shell is fine, but the eggs Irive very little gloss. In colour they are a very pale spotless blue, not much darksr than those o: Z i >.(>- i< *. "The eggs measure 1.3 and 1.32 in length, and 0.89 and 0.92 in breadth." om further notes it is made clear that the eggs above described are perfectly normal. llu that this bird' is extremely rare, and has only reached the largest Zo:i] :cr< al Gardens singly: a: any rate, our Gardens seem to have possessed it more than once, and these extremely rare birds have a trick of turning up, now and again, in some numbers, in fie bird-market. I Avell remember Avhen the late Mr. ihams first impoitfd a few specimens of Bathilda rufirctu'lri and sold them at 8 a pair he tried to per- suade me to purchase a pair at 5 as a great favour, telling me that in all probability I should never have another chance; later on I bought a pair for 2, a-rl in 1905 and 1906 they were down to 10s. a pair, many hundreds being on the market. RED-HEADED LAUGHING-THRUSH* (Trochalopteron erythroce i>hal um) . Above greyish olivaceous; head and nape chestnut; lores, chin, and throat black; ear-coverts reddish an I dark brown ; neck at back olivaceous varied with black ; lesser wing-coverts deep chestnut ; primaries olivaceous, washed with rust-reddish ; breast greyish olivaceous, spotted with black, especially at the sides ; abdomen and under tail-coverts olivaceous ; bill greyish horn- brown ; feet dull yellow; irides ? . HaV, N.W. Himalayas and western districts of Nepal (Jerdon). "By no means uncommon in Kumaon. where it fre- quents shady ravines, building in hollows and their pre- cipitous sides, and making its nest of small sticks and grasses, the eggs being five in number, of a sky-blue- colour." (Shore, cf Jerdon, "Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 43.) In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," pp. 55. 56, we read: "From Kumaon westwards, at any rate as far as the valley of the Beas, the Red-headed Laughing-Thrush is, next to T. liin'-thim. the n:o-t common species of the genus. It lavs in May and June, at elevations of from 4,000 to 7.000 feet, building low branches of trees, at a height of from 3 to K.I from the ground. " The nests are composed chiefly of dead leaves boun 1 round into a deep cup with delicate fronds of ferns and coarse and fine grass, the cavities being scantily lined Avith fine grass and moss-roots. It is difficult by any description to conA*ey an adequate idea of the beauty of "some of these nests the deep red-brown of the withered ferns, the black of the grass- and moss-roots, the pale yellow of the bread Baggy graes, and straw-yellow of some of the finer grass-stems, all blended together into an artistic wreath, in the ce of which the beautiful shv-blue and maroon-sp repose. Externally the nests may .;hont 6in. in diameter, but the egg-eivity is comparatively lar^c and very regular, measuring about 3^in. acr.iss and fully 2^m. in depth. Some nests, of course, are le>s regular and artistv in their appearance, but. as a rule, those of this species are particularly beautiful. The eggs vary from two to four in number." According to Colonel G. F. L. Marshall, the mark ; on the eggs are usually confined to the larger end. This species has been represented in the collection o! the London Zoological Gardens. THE SPECTACLED THRUSH (Trochalopterum canorum). I have adopted the above as the most descriptive title of the bird. Mr. Wiener calls it the ''Chinese Jay Thrush," and scientists give to it the trivial name of ' Chinese Laughing-Thrush," both of Avhich appellations are more correctly applicable to the BlaH. Laughing-Thrush. A specimen of this bird was given to me by Mi'. Abrahams in 1892. It is of a deep reddish brown colour: the head redder than the luck: this and the nape of the ne-k streaked with black shaft lin i s : the wing-coverts like the back; the quills sepia bro.vn, rc.ldish blown externally: the primaries reddish olive on the outer web; tail feathers olive-brown at the has on the .margins, dusky towards the tips, indis- ly barred; forehead brighter rufous than the I with distiu t black aks ; the lores, sides of face, and ear-coverts dusky, washed with tawny * In what respect the so-called Lau^'hii)!:- Thrushes of the Zoo- lo'ical Society's List differ from the Jay-Thrushes (the Laughing Thrushes of Jerdon and ether Indian authors) I do not know : I expect they are all really Jay-Thrushes and that laughing is excep- tional with them. SIBIA. 49 buff; a short eyebrow-streak from the back of the eye and a lozenge-shaped patch enclosing the eye, pale ashy grey* ; cheeks, sides of the neck, throat, and under surface tawny buff, with black shaft-streaks on the three first mentioned ; sides deeper in colour and more olive in tint, centre of abdomen ashy ; lower abdomen, thighs, vent, and under tail-coverts deep tawny buff ; under wing-coverts tawny buff, excepting those of the lower series, which are ashy brown ; quills below dark brown, reddish along the edge of the inner web ; bill brown, with the base of the lower mandible yellowish, almost yellow in old birds; legs and claws yellowish; iris of eye yellow. This species appears to be confined to China. In The Ibis for 1891, pp. 334-5, in an article on the " Birds of the Lower Yangtse Basin," Mr. F. W. Styan observes: "Abundant throughout the district on wooded hills, where they frequent the thick cover and find their food among the dead leaves. They are not shy, but thread their way so rapidly through the densest brushwood, half flitting, half hopping from branch to branch, and sometimes dodging along the ground among the stumps, that it is difficult to shoot them. They sing most beautifully morning and even- ing, and are then more easily approached. Thev are favourite cage-birds with the natives, who can always rouse them into song by imitating their note. When caged they exhibit considerable powers of mimicry, and are often known as ' Mocking-birds.' " Though naturally hill-birds, they sometimes stray into the plains when good cover attracts them. I have seen them in our garden, and shot them inside the walls of Kiukiang city, also in the Kahing silk-districts." In The Ibis for 1906, p. 438, Mr. J. D. D. La Touche says: "Common on the higher wooded hills, but also found in copses on the plain. It breeds in April, May, June, and July. " A nest which I took on May 5 was placed in a small holly-bush in a wooded ravine. It con- tained four incubated eggs. The nest was composed of leaves, coarse grass-blades, and twigs, and had a lining of pine-needles. The measurements were : outer diameter about 5^in. by 6in., outer depth 4^in., inner diameter 3^in., inner depth about 2fin. Twelve eggs taken near Chinkiang average 1.04in. by O.Slin. ; the largest is l.lOin. by 0.83in., and the smallest 0.95in. by O.SOin." In the Catalogue of Eggs in the British Museum, Vol. IV., p. 9, under T. canorum, we read: "Eggs of the ' Hwa-mei,' or Chinese Laughing-Thrush, are of a rather broad oval form, glossy, and of a spotless pale blue colour. They measure from 1.00 to 1.C4 in length, and from .80 to .85 in breadth." Herr Wiener says : " Unusual opportunities of observ- ing this Thrush allow me to name him as an incom- parable songster, a long-lived cage-bird, and one of rare intelligence." Unhappily, my experience has been the reverse ; my bird was taken out of a room where he had a good deal of liberty, and was transferred to a Thrush cage ; he gave me a few notes, not unlike those of a Blackbird, on the first two days of its captivity, but he was very nervous, soon began to mope, and after about three months he died dn a decline. Judging by what I saw of it in a room with numerous other birds, I should sav that Herr Weiner is mistaken in saying : " In thp aviarv the hard would certainly prove quarrelsome, an-d might prove destructive." I saw it in company with Blue-birds, Liothrix Weavers, Larks, Crested Pigeons, Bulbuls, Cardinals, etc., and though it is as large as a * This character probably disappears after death, as it is omitted in all scientific descriptions that I have seen. A. G. B. Blackbird and far more active, it did not seem to interfere in any way with its companions. Its flight in this comparatively small area was rapid but short ; rather more like a series of long leaps than a true flight, though when frightened by the net it showed that it could fly and turn in the air very rapidly. Dr. W. H. Brazil (The Featured World, August 26th, 1892) observes : " The Chinese seem very fond of these birds, and in Shanghai I saw a great many of them hung up outside the houses in pretty little bamboo cages. Unfortunately I never heard one of them sing, but they have the reputation of being good vocalist.-. I was told also that they are very difficult to bring over to this country, as they usually die on the Voyage, but I suspect this is through improper feeding." With regard to the South -Island Thrush (Turnagra crassirostris), it is not very likely to come into the hands of our readers, although specimens have been deposited at our Gardens. New Zealand birds seem seldom to arrive in our Bird-market, and this species is not even mentioned in Dr. Russ's big work. Should it ever come into the possession of any fortunate aviculturist I should recommend him to look up the species in Buller's " Birds of Xew Zealand." BLACK-HEADED SIBIA (Ma'.acias capistrata). Head, cheeks, and ear-coverts black, crown crested ; nape pale chestnut or rust-reddish ; back brownish- grey in the middle, deep red at back and on upper tail- coverts ; tail, with the exception of the central feathers,, deep red, black at base ; the central feathers reddish grey with a broad subterminal black belt and grey tip, the inner webs red ; bastard-wing black ; primaries with grey-whitish outer edges, outer secondaries with bluish outer edges, inner secondaries red, washed on outer edges with blue-grey ; smaller coverts brownish-grey, like centre of back; median coverts white, forming "a bar ; outer-coverts bluish-grey ; throat pale reddish, re- mainder of under-parts deeper red ; bill black ; feet yellowish-brown, irides brown. Hab., "The whole' Himalayas from Simla to Bootan, and is one of the most abundant birds about Darjeeling. It is found from 4,000ft. to 8,000ft., but most common about 7,000ft. It frequents the highest trees, climbing up the larger branches, and clinging round and below the smaller branches, almost like a Woodpecker or Nuthatch. " It is often seen alone, or in pairs, but occasionally in small parties ; and is constantly uttering its twitter- ing call, which Hutton syllables as titteeree, tittaree,. f tree i/a, cften answered bv one at some little distance. It is very fond of concealing itself in the thick masses of Epiphytic plants found on all lofty trees in Sikhim, and its favourite food is the fruit of the Epiphytic Andromedas so abundant about Darjeeling ; it occasion- ally, however, picks insects from moss, or crevices of the bark. "I on one occasion saw it at Karsion, 4,500ft. high, in winter, climbing up and down the thatched roof of a bungalow. Hutton procured the nest at Mussooree,. made of coarse grass, moss, wool, and roots ; and the one egg he got was pale bluish-white, with rufous, freckles." (Jerdon, " Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 55.) In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds." Vol. I., p. 133, we read: '"The Black-headed Sihia lays throughout the Himalayas from Afghanistan to Bhootan, at elevations of from 5,000ft. to 7,000ft. " It lays during May and June, and perhaps part of July, for I find that on the llth of July I found a nest of this species a little below the lake at Nynee Tal, on the Jewli Road, containing two young chicks apparently not a dav old. D FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. " They build on the outskirts of forests, constructing their nests towards the ends of branches, at heights of from 10ft. to 50ft. from the ground. The nest is a neat cup, some 4in. or 5in. in diameter, and perhaps 3in. in height, composed chiefly of moss and lined with black moss-roots and fibres. In some of the nests that I have preserved a good deal of grass-leaves and scraps of lichen are incorporated in the moss. The cavity is deep, from 2^in. to 3in. in diameter and not much less than 2in. in depth. " They lay two or three eggs ; not more, so far as I yet- know." In Thr Ar'trultural Mayaziiir, N.S., Vol. L, pp. 255-262, Mr. Reginald Phillippe has given an account, illustrated by a coloured plate, of a pair of this species in his possession. He says : " The sexes are alike ; nevertheless it is seldom that I cannot distin- guish my male from the female. During the first year the difference was usually unmistakable, the male being the larger and thicker bird, and the crest longer and more wavy ; and he was mucli more bold and enterpris- ing." Anybody who is fortunate enough to secure examples of this bird should read Mr. Phillipps' account. He tells us that Mr. K \V. Harper locked eleven specimens in England in 1902, but one was shot and another drowned and nobodv knows whether or not the others survived the succeeding winter. GOLDKX-EYKD BABBLER (PlJCtOrlds ft IK' II -f the trees, was extremely quick and restless, leaping from branch to branch in rapid succes- sion, at the same time throwing up and expanding the tail and wings ; these actions being generally ac- companied with a harsh unpleasant note ; their manners, in fact, closely resemble those of the White-winged Corcorax and the Pomatorhini. " The following notes on this species I find in Gilbert's journal of the occurrences during his expedition with Leichhardt irom Moreton Bay to Port Essington. They were written on the sixteenth day after his departure, and will not be devoid of interest : ' ' Oct. 19. Strolled about in search of novelties, and was amply repaid by finding the eggs of Struthidea cinerea. I disturbed the bird several times from a rose- wood-tree growing in a small patch of scrub, and felt assured it had a nest, but could only find one, which I considered to be that of a Grallina ; determined, if possible, to solve the difficulty, I lay down at a short distance within full view of the tree, and was not a little surprised at seeing the bird take possession of, as I believed, the Grallina'' s nest ; I immediately climbed the tree and found four eggs-, the medium length of which was one inch and a quarter by seven- eighths of an inch in breadth ; their colour was white, with blotches, principally at the larger end, of reddish lrown, purplish grey, and greenish grey ; some of the blotches appearing as if they had been laid on with a soft brush. From the appearance of the nest, I should say it was an old one of Grallina, particularly as it contained a much greater quantity of grass for a lining than I ever observed in the nest of a Grallina while that bird had possession of it ; if this be not the case, then the nest of Struthidea is precisely similar, being like a great basin of mud, and placed in the same kind of situation, on a horizontal branch. " ' Oct. 21. In the evening I again met with the Struthidea, which I disturbed from a nest like the one above described, and from the new appearance of frhe structure I am inclined to believe it to be constructed by the bird itself, although it does so closely resemble that of Grallina, especially as in this case the nest was placed in a situation far from water, and there were no <&rallince in the neighbourhood. This nest, like the last, had a very thick lining of fine p-rass, and appeared as if just finished for the reception of the eggs.' " There is no doubt that the nests above described were those pf Strufhidea : those of Corcorax and Grallina are precisely similar ; and we now know that all three birds build the same kind of mud nests. "The food, as ascertained by dissection, is insects; the stomachs of those examined were tolerably hard and muscular, and contained the remains of coleoptera." Russ says that this bird is rare in the German market : it has been offered to me more than once ; but unless one has a deep pocket and manv aviaries a bird of this kind is not sufficiently attractive to tempt one to purchase it ; of course it is not a cheap bird, though, on account of its sombre colour-ing, it is not excessively dear. According to Russ it built a nest in the Berlin Aquarium and several times in the Berlin Zoological Gardens ; in the latter also it laid eggs and brooded young ones, but unhappily without rearing them. In 1875 and 1876 the pair nested four times, Professor Peters taking possession of the second nest as well as eggs and young for the Royal Zoological Museum of Berlin. The male fed the young more frequently than the female, apparently upon soft food and worms : pos- sibly the want of abundant insect-food may have had something to do with the death of the young, yet Russ speaks of one attaining the age of two months and having its head split open by a white Australian Crow. GREY HYPOCOLITJS (Hypocolius ampelinus). Delicate huffish ash-coloured ; the crest, throat and under tail-coverts of a purer pale buffish, washed with vinaceous ; lores, sides of face enclosing eye, and a band at back of neck shining blackish ; primaries black, the outer ones shaded with brown at the tips, otherwise with white tips ; secondaries blackish, margined ex- ternally and tipped with ashy ; tertials buffish-ash, blackish at base; tail-feathers broadly smoky black at the tips ; under wing-coverts dull whitish ; sides of breast shaded with ash; bill and feet horn-coloured, the former with black-brown tip. The female is smaller, more olivaceous, crown and lores darker ; no black on face or nape ; primaries slightly edged externally with grey-brownish, the apical margin distinct, prominent, white ; less black at the extremity of the tail-feathers, which are ashy grey or drab ; under wing-coverts pale dull buffish. The young bird resembles the female, but is more dingy ; the flights almost uniform in colouring, slightly blackish towards the tips, but not pale-tipped. Hab., N.E. Africa as far as the Niam-Niam country ; the Persian Gulf, and Sind. Mr. W. D. Gumming (cf. The Ibis 1886, pp. 478-80) says : " It is not till the middle of June that they breed. " In 1883, first eggs were brought by an Arab about the 13th of June, and on the 15th of the same month I found a nest containing two fresh eggs. In 1884, on the 14th of June, a nest was brought me containing four fresh eggs, and on the 15th I found a nest contain- ing also four fresh eggs. " 2nd July, I came across four young birds able to fly. On the 3rd, three nests were brought, one containing two fresh eggs, another three young just fledged, and the other four eggs slightly incubated. On the 9th another nest, containing four young just fledged, was brought. On the 15th, I saw a flock of small birds well able to fly ; on the 18th I found a nest containing four young about a couple of days old, and on the 20th a nest containing three eggs well incubated was brought from a place called " Goosba " on the oppo- site bank (Persian side) of the river. " The nests are generally placed on the leaves of the date-palm, at no very great' height. The highest I 'have seen was built about 10ft. from the ground, but from 3ft. to 5ft. is the average height. " They are substantial and cup-shaped, having a diameter of about 3^in. bv 2^in. in de.pth, lined inside with fine grass, the soft fluff from the willow when in seed, wool, and sometimes hair. " The eggs are of a glossy leaden white, with leaden- coloured blotches, and spots towards the larger end, 52 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. sometimes forming a ring round the larger end, and at times spreading over the entire egg. " On rare occasions I have noticed a greenish tinge in very fresh eggs. This, I think, is due to the colour of the inner membrane, which is generally a very light green, in some very faint and in others more decided ; this tinge seems to disappear after the egg is blown. " Very rough measurements are as follows : 0.9in. by 0.63in. ' 0.83in. by 0.63in. ; 0.83in. by 0.6in. ; 0.83in. by 0.66in. ; 0.86in. by 0.66in. " In 1883 I managed to rear a young bird, feeding it on bread steeped in water and lots of flies. " It used to fly about my room and the verandah, but always came to me when I showed it a fly. Unfortu- nately, one day I was rubbing up some brass hinges, and left them to steep in salad-oil, into which a fly fell ; the bird immediately seized and swallowed it, and in a few hours after got a fit, which recurred several times during the next two days, and on the third day it died. "I have known the old birds forsake a nest after it has been once examined, and even to stop building when it has been observed, and leave the locality altogether." When a statement like the above is made about any bird it is generally ridiculed by those who have not themselves observed it. In the case of our English Wren I have frequently observed the same thing. Mr. Cuming presented a male of this species to our London Zoological Gardens in March, 1890, and a pair in May, 1892, but Dr. Russ does not notice the species in his " Fremdlandischen Stubenvogel," yet there is no reason why other examples should not come to hand. CHAPTER VI. ORIOLES (Oriolidce). The Orioles were regarded by Seebohm as relatives of the Crows ; but, whether related to them or not, it is certain that they have nothing to do with the so-called Orioles of the New World, which are to all intents and purposes Starlings. They are bright-coloured birds, chiefly yellow or scarlet a.nd black, and they form hammock-like nests, lay white or salmon-pink eggs spotted with blackish-brown, sometimes with lilacine-greyish shell-markings. Their food consists of injects in all stages, spiders, and small fruits ; and in captdvity a good insectivorous food, with the addition of a few living insects and a little fruit daily, suits them well. I have only kept the European species, and I find it a most dull and apathetic bird, but possibly this may have been partly due to the fact that it was blind of one eye and had a drooping wing ; as a show-bird an Oriole would be admirable. BLACK-NAPED ORIOLE (Oriohis ituHcus}. Plumage bright yellow ; the back and wing-coverts greenish ; tips of primary-coverts bright yellow forming a spot of colour; primaries black, tipped and bordered with greenish-yellow ; secondaries broadly margined with pale yellow ; tertiaries with the outer web and part of the inner web greenish yellow ; tail black, the central feathers narrowly tipped with yellow, which increases in width to the outermost feathers, which are very broadly yellow at the distal end ; a black horse- shoe marking extending from the bill through the eye to the nape : lull pinky-reddish : feet leaden grey; iride.s blood-red. Female more greenish above and generally rather duller than the male. Young above yellowish- green, below whitish with dark shaft-lines; the horse- shoe like marking passing through the eyes and uniting on the nape not or barely indicated; bill dusky. Hab., widely distributed throughout India, but rare ;. commoner in the countries to the east of the Bav of Bengal, Arrakan, Pegu, and Tena.-.serim, extending to Malacca; appears to be found in China. (Jerdon.) Neither Jerdon nor Hume giv^s any information respecting the wild life of this species, but Mr. E. i '. Stuart Baker (The Ibis, 1396, p. 332) publishes the fol- lowing account of its mdification : "I have taken two nests of this Oriole, both of the ordinary cradle-shape and quite indistinguishable tnnu those of 0. melanocephalua and 0. kundoo. Both were built in masses of creepers growing over oaks, which stood in thin forest composed of that species of tree, and both were at a very great height from the ground, and were only got at after much time and trouble had 'been spent over them. " The eggs, of which there were two in each nest, are of the usual Oriole type ; three have a decidedly- pink ground, perhaps rather darker than in most eg-. this genus, and are spotted in the ordinary way wit!' rather dark reddish-brown. The fourth egg differs only in being rather paler and being rather more sparingly, though boldly, blotched with a still darker brown. Two of the eggs measure 1.09in. by 0.76in., and l.OSin. by 0.79in. The other two eggs 1 presented to the Asiatic MiiM-um, Calcutta, without measuring them befui doing so, but they were, if I remember rightly, botli larger and longer than those I retained for my own collection." Russ gives no information respecting the cage-life of the Indian Oriole. It has been exhibited at the Lo;i-ln:i Zoological Gardens. SYKKS' ORIOLE (Oriolus Male bright yellow ; wings black crossed by a yellow- bar formed by the primary coverts ; flights tipped a IK: edged with yellow; central ti- il-feathers black, the remainder broadly and increasingly tipped with yellow : a black stripe from base of mandible, extending behind eye to ear -coverts ; bill deep rose-red ; feet leaden grey . irides blood-red. Female more greenish above. Young above yellowish-green ; bright yellow on rump, taps of inner webs of tail-feathers, sides of abdomen and vent ; wings olive-brown; remainder of body below whitish .strippd with brown ; bill black. Hah.. India up to base- o'f Himalayas, excepting Lower Bengal. (Jerdon.) According to Jerdon this bird breeds during the rains in Central India; but "is to be found, at all seasons, in every part of the country in small numbers. It prefers a wel I -wooded country, but not deep forests; and lives in large groves of trees, gardens, and avenues. It chiefly feeds on fruit, especially on the figs of the Banian and l'akur,on mulberries, etc., also occasionally on caterpillars, and other soft-bodied insects. Its flight is strong, but undulating, with interrupted flappings. Its call is a loud mellow whistle, something resembling pee-Jw, and the voice of the European Oriole must be very similar, as it is given as pyfi-lo and biilow; and the French name Loriot is said to be also given from its call. "I have seen the nest several times, and I described one_in my "Illustrations of Indian Ornithology," under 0. iixJicux, as follows : "It was a cup-nhaped nest, slightly made with fine grass and roots, and suspended from a rather high branch by a few long fibres of grass ; these did not sur- round the nest, but only supported it on two sides. It contained three eggs, white, spotted, chiefly at the large end, with a very few large dark purple blotches." " I procured a nest at Sangor, from a high branch DRONGOS. 53 of a banian tree in cantonment. It was situated between the forks of a branch, made of fine roots and grass, with some hair and a feather or two internally, and suspended by a long roll of cloth about fin. wide, which it must have pilfered from the neighbouring verandah, where the tailor worked. This strip was wound round each fork, then passed round the nest beneath, fixed to the other fork and again brought round the nest, to the opposite side ; there were four or five of these supports on each side. It was, indeed, a most curious nest, and so securely fixed that it could not have been removed till the supporting bands had been cut or rotted away. The ggs were, as before described, white, with a few dark claret-coloured spots. Burgess describes a nest made of grass, spiders' web, hemp, and pieces of paper, placed in the fork of a tree, and two of the branches were bound together with the hemp. Theobald also found the nest, a neat cup of woven grass, attached by its side to the bough of a tree, and he describes the egp-s as white, with black spots."" Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 108. Dr. Russ says that this Oriole was received at the London Zoological Gardens in 1878, and has been only once imported since that date, by G. Bosz, of Cologne. In this, however, he is mistaken, because a specimen was purchased by our Zoological Society in August, 1892 (seven years before the publication of his statement). It is quite likely that other examples may have come to band more recently. DRONGOS (Dicruridcv). According to Horsfield and Jerdon, these birds are related to the Shrikes. They seem to be purely insectivorous ; they are splendid songsters and clever mimics , some of their notes are marvellously rich and organ-like. LARGE RACKET-TAILED DRONGO (Dissemurus paradiseus}. Black, glossed with steel-blue; feathers of crown slightly hackled, those of nape strongly so, those of breast* slightly : frontal crest falling backwaids over nape ; outer tail-feathers 18in. to 19>n. long, the shaft having the terminal end, for about 3in., barbed exter- nally, but towards the tip only on the inner side, and turning inwards, so that the underside becomes upper- most. Jerdon. " This very showy and curious bird is found in the dense forests of India, from the Himalayas to the Eastern Ghats as far south as N.L. 15 degrees. I have seen them, from Nellore Ghats, GoomsoDr, the foiests of Central India, and they are found in Lower Bengal, the Sunderbuns, and the Himalayas. Out of our province it is found in Assam, Sylhet, Burmah. and Tenasserim. Near Darjeeling they do not range higher than 1,500ft. or 2,000ft. of elevation. " This large Racket-tailed Drongo is found singly or in pairs, now and then in small parties, and appears to wander a good deal in search of food, flying from tree to tree, generally at no great elevation, making an occa- sional swoop at an insect on the wing, or sometimes whipping one off a I ranch. " Frequently, however, it hunts for some time from a fixed station, returning to the same tree. Its food is bees, wasps, beetles, dragonflies, locusts, and mantides. It has a very peculiar c.ill, beginning with a harsh chuckle, and ending in a peculiar metallic creaking cry. Mr. Elliot expresses it by Tse-rung, Tse-rung. It has, however, a great variety of notes. It follows birds of prey now and then, especially at the breeding time, just as our common King-crow does. I have had its nest brought me several times at Darjeeling ; rather a large structure of twigs and roots, and the eggs, usually three in number, pinkish white, with claret-coloured or purple spots ; but they vary a great deal in size, form, and colouring. They breed in April and May. " The Bhimraj is often caught and tamed, and may generally be had at Calcutta o>r at Monghyr, where the hill-men bring Shamas, Hill Mynas, Bhimrajs, and various other hill-birds for sale. It is a very amusing bird in confinement ; will imitate all sorts of sounds, as of dogs, cats, sheep and goats, poultry, and the notes of many birds ; hence it used to be called by some Hazar- dastan, or the bird with a thousand tales. Blyth had one that imitated the fine song of the Shama to per- fection. In other respects, it is a very fearless amusing bird in captivity, and is sometimes even suffered to have its liberty, coming readily to the call of its owner. It will eat raw meat, lizards, and almost any kind of animal food that is offered to it." Jerdon, " Birds of India," Vol. I., pp. 436-437. In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd edition, Vol. I., pp. 216-217, are many additional notes on the nidification of this species ; but beyond the fact that one of the nests was situated 20ft. from the ground, it seems to me unnecessary to quote them. Dr. Russ says that this Racket-tailed Drongo reached them in Germany in 1870, and in 1872 Alfred Brehm was able to confirm the accounts of the mimicking powers of the bird by observation of a specimen in the Berlin Aquarium. After this he says that for a long time it was rare in the market, only a few examples being received. Then Peter Franck, of Liverpool, obtained a specimen in 1884, and published an account of it in 1885. In 1892 an example reached the Berlin Zoological Gardens, and in 1894 Herr Fockelmann exhibited one at the exhibition of the " ^Egintha " Society, which imitated the Shama's song. Latterly Russ says that it has become commoner in the market, and certainly I have myself seen it exhibit d at the Crystal Palace ; yet in the 9th edition of the List of Animals exhibited by our Zoological Society it does not appear. INDIAN OR HAIR-CRESTED DRONGO (Chibla hotlentotta). Black, glossed with purple and blue on the nape and breast, wings and tail shining bronze-green ; bill and feet black ; irides red-brown. Hab., India, both North and South, Pegu, Tenasserim. Jerdon observes: "I found it in March on the silk- cotton trees (Bombax malabaricttin), several together, apparently feeding on insects harbouring in the fine flowers of that tree, for which its long tenuirostral bill must be well adapted. I again saw it hopping and flying among the branches of a lofty tree in Wynaad, apparently picking insects now and then off the twigs or leaves. Tickell, who procured it in the jungles of Chota Nagpore, says that it frequents large timber- trees on the banks of nullahs, tanks, etc., and mentions that the cotton-tree in blossom was a great resort. It frolics about, says he, in small parties ; its voice is changeable, and in constant exertion, from a beautiful song, to whistling, chattering, and creaking like a rusty wheel, at times resembling the higher strains of the organ, both striking and plaintive. " Mr. Hodgson states that it feeds on wasps, bees, green beetles, etc., very rarely vetches ; that it lives part of the year in pairs, or singly, and the rest in families ; that it descends from its lofty perch to seize an insect on the wing, and occasionally seizes on the ground. I imagine that the vetches, stated by Hodgson to vary its food occasionally, must have been taken in its mouth with some insect which it seized off the plant. 54 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. " Buch. Hamilton saA-s it is common in the neighbour- hood of Calcutta, building among bamboos, living in pairs, and i'eeding on insects and fruits. It is said to sing well, he says, and is frequently tamed by the Mussulmans, who in the morning carry it about, and invoke the name of God and the prophet, in the same manner as they do with Parrakeets. The Lepchas of Darjeeling brought me a nest, which was said to have been placed high up in a large tree. It was composed of twigs and roots, and a few bits of grass, and contained two eggs, livid white, with purplish and claret spots, and of a very elongated form." " Birds of India." Vol. I., pp. 439. 440. In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd edition, pp. 213-214, are the following notes, which I think should be quoted: " Mr. R. Thompson says : ' The Hair-crested Drongo is extremely common as a breeder in all our hot valleys ('Kumaon and Gurwhal). It lay.s in May and June, building in forks of branches of small leafy trees situated in warm valleys having an elevation of from 2,000 to 2,500 feet. The 'nest is circular, about five inches in diameter, rather deep and hollow ; it is composed of fine roots and fibres bound together with cobwebs, and it is lined with hairs and fine roots. They lay from three to four much elongated, purplish-white eggs, spotted with pink or claret colour.' " Mr. J. R. Cripps has written the following valuable notes regarding the breeding of the Hair-crested Drongo in the Dibrugarh district, in Assam: "'May 17th. 1879. Nest with three fresh eggs. attached to a fork in one of the outer branches of an otinga (JJillriiin /a nttnji/Ha) tree, and about 15 feet off the ground. " 'May 15th, 1880. Three fresh eggs in a nest 20 feet off the ground, and a few yards from my bungalow, in an oorian (Bisclwffia jnvanica, Bl.). " ' June 5th, 1880. Nest with three partly-incubated eggs, in one of the outer branches of a jack (Artocarpus integrifolla} tree, and about 15 feet off the ground. " ' May 27th, 1881. Three fresh eggs in a nest on a soom (Machilus odoratissima) tree at the edge of the forest bordering the tea. The nests ai*e deep saucers, 3$ inches in diameter, internally 1 deep, with the sides about i thick ; but the bottom is so flimsy that the eggs are easily seen from below, the materials being grass, roots, and fine tendrils of creepers, especially if these are thorny, when they are used as a lining. The nest is always situated in the fork of a branch.' " This bird has been exhibited in our Zoological Gardens, where it was received as long ago as 1866 ; in 1894 it was imported by Fockelmann, of Hamburg, but according to the late Dr. Rv.s? is much rarer in the mai'ket than the preceding species. WOOD=SW ALLOWS (Artawlas). The affinity of these birds to the Drongos has been pretty generally recognised, but various authorities have also regarded them as showing affinity to the Swallows (Blyth), to the Orioles (Cabanis). and to the StarlingvS (Reichenow). Of late years they have net in- frequently been exhibited at bird shows. WHITE-EYEBROWED WOOD-SWALLOW (Artamus superciliosus) . Above smoky grey, paler on rump and tail, blackish upon the crown ; lores, area encircling eye, and ear- coverts black ; chin greyish-black ; a white eyebrow- stripe pointed in front, spatulate at back ; tail-feathers, excepting the outer ones, tipped with white ; outer webs of outer feathers grey ; under surface chestnut ; wings below white ; bill pale blue ac base, black at tip ; feet dark lead-coloured ; irides blackish. Female with the lores and area encircling eye duller, eyebrow-stripe less defined ; throat grey ; tail less distinctly tipped with white; under surface paler chestnut. Hab., New South Wales. Gould says that this is a shy species, giving " preference to the topmost branches of the highest trees, from which it sallies forth for the capture of insects, and to which it again returns, in the usual manner of the tribe. In every part where I have observed it. it is distinctly migratory, arriving in summer, and departing northwards after the breeding season. " The nest is most difficult of detection, being^ generally placed either in a fork of the branches or in a niche near the bole of the tree, whence the bark has. been partially istripped. It is a round, very shallow* and frail structure, composed of small twigs and lined with fibrous roots; those I discovered contained two- eggs, but I had not sufficient opportunities for ascer- taining if this number was constant. Their ground- colour is dull buffy- white, spotted with umber-brown, forming a zone near the larger end ; in some these- spots are sparingly sprinkled over the whole surface ; they have also the obscure grey spotting of those of A. sordid us. The eggs are rather more than eleven lines long by eight and a half lines broad." " Birds of Aust"ali:i," Vol. I., p. 153. Mr. A. J. North says (Cat. Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania, p. 48) : "It builds a round, and almost flat, scanty nest of roots and grasses through which the eggs, in some situations, can be seen from below in every possible position, both in the indigenous and acclimatised tree^ of our public parks and gardens. In Albert Park I have found no less than ten nests, each containing e in a single row of pines (Pinu* in.-'ii/iiis) of about fifty yards in length, the tree at that time being of _a uniform height of five feet ; at other times the nest is placed in the horizontal fork of the branches of the- eucalyptus or acacia, the broad, flat fronds of the Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria ercclta], and on two occasions I have found it in the leafy top of a rose- bush. The eggs are three in number, usually of a buffy-white ground-colour, blotched and freckled all over with light brown, and umber-brown markings, par- ticularly towards the larger end. Occasionally an egg in a se't is found of a dull white ground-colour, with a well-defined zone of dark umber round the larger end. The measurements of a set taken at Albert Park in December, 1870 are as follows -.Length (A) 0.9 x 0.7 inch; (B) 0.95 x 0.7 inch; (C) 0.93 x 0.67 inch." In a note published in Tie Emit, Vol. II., p. 217, Mr. F. L. Berney records the fact that the Wood- Swallows feed upon honey. He says: "Two of the species (Artamus perannatus and .4. superciliosus} have been nocking lately on the bauhinia trees, which are just now in full bloom. I watched them quite close, there being no need for the glasses, for in their eager- ness to gather their breakfast of honey they crowded round me within 8ft. of my head." The writer shot some of these birds, but appears to have found only ants and one beetle in the stomachs, which (the editor points out) suggests that the birds were after inserts and not honey; however, in Vol. III., p. 112. Miss Helen Bowie writes : " I have kept two pairs of Wood- S \vallows for the last seven months. They were turned out into an aviary in which there wns honey for some KTcli pjtnfjidrp. No sooner were the Wood-Swallows at liberty than they made their way to the pot, and seemed to recognise it as a natural diet. At presen* they live principally on fruit and honey, with a little Lark food! and occasional insects "by way of a treat. They visit WOOD- SWALLOWS. 55 scented flowers, 'but I do not know whether in search of honey or not. The brush tongue would seem to indicate that honey was in the wild state a food some- times used, though perhaps, as in the case of some honey-eating Parrots, not necessary always to subsist- ence." Five examples of this species reached our Zoological Gardens in 1866 ; a pair was bred in the Gardens in 1870, and one was added in 1875. In 1897 Miss Hagen- beck imported specimens, of which three went to the Berlin Gardens, and in 1899 and subsequent years speci- mens were regularly exhibited at our London shows and elsewhere. MASKED WOOD-SWALLOW (Artamus personatus). Upper surface deep grey, including the wings and tail ; the latter tipped with white ; head above eooty- black ; face, ear-coverts and throat jet-black, edged below by a narrow white line ; under surface delicate grey ; thighs darker ; bill blue at base, black at tip ; i'eet hoary bluish-grey ; irides blackish-brown. The female is rather duller than the male, with paler bill and dark grey mask. Hab., South Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South, West, and North-west Australia. According to Gilbert, this species is shy and retired, never being seen but in the most secluded parts of the bush. " Its nest is placed in the upright fork of a dead tree, or in the hollow part of the stump of a grass- tree ; it is neither so well nor so neatly formed ae those of the other species of the group, being a frail structure externally composed of a very few extremely small twigs, above which is a layer of fine dried grasses. The eggs also differ as remarkably as the nest, their ground- colour being light greenish grey, dashed and speckled with hair -brown principally at the larger end, and ( slightly spotted with 'grey, appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell ; they are ten and a half lines long '' by eight and a half lines broad. I found two nests in a York gum forest, about five miles to the east of the Avon River ; each of these contained two eggs, which I believe is the usual number. Mr. Angas informs me that in South Australia this bird makes no nest, but places the eggs on a few bent stalks of grass in the bend of a small branch." (Of. Gould, " Birds of Aus- tralia," Vol. I., p. 151.) Somewhat opposed to the above is the account given in A. J. Campbell's " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," pp. 466-8 : "Nest. In general similar to that of A. superciliosus ; composed of dead branching twigs as a foundation, then green portions of shrubs, finally a goodly lining of fine rootlets, dry grass,, and chiefly a green wiry grass, and situated in a 'bush or low branch of a tree from 1 feet to 8 or 10 feet above the ground. Dimensions over all, 4 inches by 3 inches in depth ; egg-cavity, 2 inches across by 1^ inches deep." A beautiful photograph of the nest containing three eggs faces this description. "Eggs. Clutch, two to three; stout oval in shape or sharply pointed at one end ; texture of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour, light greenish- grey, mottled and clouded, chiefly around the upper quarter, with umber and dull grey ; resembling exactly those of the A. superciliosus. Dimensions in inches of a clutch: (1) .88 x -66, (2) .88 x -66, (3) .8 x .67. " Observations. This handsome Wood-Swallow and the A. superciliosus axe probably more nearly related than any other two of the Artami. The fact already recorded by me of the female A. personatus being mated to a male A. superciliosus would tend to prove that assertion ; besides, oologically speaking, the eggs are inseparable as far as outward appearances go. The voices of the two species are very much alike, but the 'whamp'-like alarm note of A. personatus is somewhat coanser and deeper. " I stated in a previous part of my observations on this Wood-Swallow that odd pairs accompanied the White-browed birds on their visits southwards. But the year 1895 was a most remarkable exception, when flocks of the Masked species appeared independently in Victoria. The early flocks arrive in the first "week in November, or a month after the first of the White- browed birds. My son reported he had seen flocks in the vicinity of Springvale, near the Gippsland railway line. To verify his statement Mr. Gillespie and I DUSKY WOOD-SWALLOWS. repaired thither on the afternoon of the 30th November. We had no sooner left the station than a flock of mostly Masked Wood- Swallows rose from some low scrub, where we took two or three nests." In an article on Wood-Swallows in The Avicultural Magazine for May, 1900, p. 156, Mr. Henry J. Fulljames mentions the importation of two pairs of this species, by Mr. Geo. Carrick presumably, of which he secured one pair and the other went to the London Gardens. In October of the same year Mr. Glasscoe exhibited a specimen at the Crystal Palace, the same bird being again exhibited in January and November, 1901, and February, 1902. DTTSKY WOOD-SWALLOW (Artamus sordidus). "Head, neck, and the whole of the body fuliginous grey ; wings dark bluish black, the external edges of the second, third, and fourth primaries white ; tail bluish black, all the feathers, except the two middle ones, largely tipped with white ; irides dark brown ; bill blue, with a black tip ; feet mealy lead-colour. FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. "The sexes are alike in the colouiing of their plumage, and are only to he distinguished by the female being somewhat smaller in size. " The young have an irregular stripe of dirty white down the centre of each feather of the upper surface, and are mottled with the same on the under part of the body." Gould. Hab., "Australia (except perhaps North), nnd Tasmania, including islands in Bass Strait." ( 'nni /ibt-ll. According to Gould, this species is strictly migratory in Tasmania where it arrives in October, and after rear- ing at least two broods departs again in a northern direc- tion. On the continent of Australia it arrives rather e.irlier, and departs later. Gould observes that the Tasmanian specimens are invariably larger in all measurement and of a deeper colour. A naturalist calling himself " Nemo " (writing in The Australasian- of November 2, 1895) notes the dates of arrival and departure of this species in South Victoria for seven years, from which it appears that migratory flocks arrive there between August 19 and September 9 and depart between the end of April and middle of May. (Cf. Campbell "Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," pp. 472-3).* Gould remarks : " This Wood-Swallow must, I think, ever be a geneial favourite with the Australians, not only from its singular and pleasing actions, but from its often taking up its abode and incubating near the houses, particularly such as are surrounded by pad- dccks and open pasture-land skirted by large trees. It was in such situations in Tasmania that, at the com- mencement of spring, I first had the opportunity of observing this species ; it was then very numerous on all the cleared estates on the north side of the Derwent, about eight or ten being seen on a single tree, and half .as many crowding one against another on the same dead branch, but never in such numbers as to deserve the appellation of flocks. Each bird appeared to act independently of the other ; each, as the desire for food prompted it, sallying forth from the branch to capture a passing insect, or to soar round the tree and return again to the same spot ; on alighting it repeatedly throws up one of its wings, and obliquely spreads its tail. At other times a few were seen perched on the fence surrounding the paddocks, on which they fre- quently descended, like Starlings, in search of coleoptera and other insects. The form of the wing of the Art am/us sordid it* at once indicates that the air is its peculiar province ; hence it is, that when engaged in pursuit of the insects which the serenity and warmth of the weather have enticed from their lurking-places among the foliage, to sport in higher regions, this sp:cies displays itself to the greatest advantage. But the greatest peculiarity in the habits of this bird is its manner of hanging together in clusters from the branch of a tree, like a swarm of bees. The season of incubation is from September to December. The situation of the nest is much varied ; I have seen ane placed in a thickly-foliaged bough near the ground, while others were in a naked fork, on the of the bole of a tree, in a niche formed by a portion of the bark having been separated from the trunk, etc. The nest is rather shallow, of a rounded form, about five inches in diameter, and composed of fine twigs neatly lined with fibrous roots. I observed that the nests found in Tasmania were larger, more compact, and more neatly formed than those on the continent of Australia. * According to Mr. S. W. Jackson, they arrive in New South Wales iii July or August and depart again in January or February. The eggs are generally four in number ; they differ much in the disposition of their markings ; their ground-colour is dull white, spotted and dashed with dark umber-brown. In some a second series of greyish spots appear as if beneath the surface of the shell ; their medium length is eleven lines, and breadth eight lines." "Birds of Australia," Vol. I., pp. 144-5. According to Mr. North (Cat. Nests and Eggs Aus- tralian Birds, p. 43) " this species breeds from Sep- tember till the middle of January. The young birds are often found on the ground during December, having left the nest before being able to fly, and are unable to get back again." About 1898 Mr. Geo. Carrick imported two pairs of this Wood-Swallow (parents and hand-reared young) which later came into the hands of Messrs. Fulljames and Fillmer. In 1899 Mr. Fulljames obtained three other pairs from the same importer. In his article on Wood-Swallows (Avi cultural Mayazinr, 1st series, Vol. VI., p. 155) Mr. Fulljames remarks that " they have been kept all together in a large open cage with wire top as well as sides, and they spend quite a con- siderable portion of their time hanging head downwards from the top of the cage. They roost as closely as possible together, always head downwards. When I had my first pair I soon noticed that if anything was accidentally left on the top of their cage they invariably roosted directly underneath it, so their cage now is always provided with a piece of flannel, which is evidently appreciated." Mr. Fulljames fed his birds upon an ordinary insectivorous bird-food ; probably, one would suppose, that now known as "Century food." In 1900 (May) five examples of this species reached the London Zoological Gardens. Dr. Russ says that in 1898 it was imported into Germany and reached the Zoological Gardens of Berlin. ASHY WOOD-SWALLOW (Artaiint* /';/..<). General colour above soft ashy slate colour, the back, scapulars, and rump somewhat reddish ; upper tail- coverts whitish, largely concealed by the rump-feathers ; wings and tail dark bluish-ash ; inner primaries and secondaries with a narrow pale terminal edging ; central tail feathers narrowly, the remainder broadly tipped with whitish ; lores blackish ; throat somewhat dusky ; breast ancT abdomen delicate reddish ash-coloured fading to white on under tail-coverts ; bill milky blue, blackish at tip ; feet dull bluish, with darker claws ; iris dark brown. Female (according to Col. Legge) with the ba.se of the month yellow, whereas in the male the inside is wholly black ; iris paler or reddish-brown. Young, dull earthy brown on head and back with paler edges to feathers ; secondaries and inner primaries broadly tipped with white; throat more dusky than in adult, blending gradually with hue of breast, which is ruddier than in adult. Hab., India generally and Ceylon. Dr. Jerdon says that this bird "is most abundant in wooded districts, especially where palm-trees abound, more particularly the palmyra palm, from which indeed it takes several of its native names. Where they are numerous, several may be seen seated on the same branch, but they fly off independently of earh other, and after a flight of .<;>me few minutes, return either again to the same perch or to another tree. At times 1 have seen an immense flock in the a/ir all together, hunt- ing for insects, and remaining on the wing for a much longer period. A .small party may occasionally lie .-ecu. skimming over the Mil-face of a tank, picking up an insect now and then, .and returning to a hiuh lunmli nf a tree, overhanging the water. They live entirely on SHRIKES. 57 insects of various kinds. I have found them most abundant in the Carnatic, the Malabar coast, the Northern Circars, and Bengal ; very rare in the Deccan and Central India. To my great surprise, I found them on the sides of hills, at Darjeeling, on cleared spots up to about 4,000ft. of elevation. " I have procured the nest of this bird, situated on a palmyra tree on the stem of the leaf. It was a deep cup-shaped nest, made of grass, leaves, and numerous feathers, and contained two eggs white with a greenish tinge, and with light brown spots, chiefly at the larger end. I see that Mr. Layard procured the nest in Ceylon, where this bird is common, in the head of cocoa-nut trees, made of fibres and grasses ; and it was probably the nest of this bird that was brought to Tickell, as that of the Palm Swift (Cypselus batassiensis). " Its flight is elegant and Swallow-like, a few rapid strokes of the wing alternating with a gliding flight with outspread wings, and often in circles, or, when in close pursuit of an insect, rapid and direct. Its cry, which it frequently utters, both when seated and in flight, is plaintive, very like that of the Shikra (Micronisns ladius) but more subdued." "Birds of India," Vol. I., pp. 441-2. Colonel W. V. Legge says : " It is exceedingly fond of scattered groves of palmyras close to the sea-shore, resting; on the fronds of these trees when not hawking for insects, and roosting on them at night. It associates in small flocks, perching together in closely packed rows, and sallying out in twos and threes after its food, which it catches on the wing, circling round, and sometimes mounting, with a buoyant flight, high in the air, where it will occasionally soar for a considerable time with outstretched wings. It is always of a most sociable nature ; and when a flock is scattered by the shooting of one of their number, they speedily reunite on a neigh- bouring tree. It is partial to the vicinity of water, as in hawking above the surface of tanks and lakes it finds an abundance of food. In its mode of feeding it resembles the Drongo-Shrikes, beating its prey (which consists largely of beetles) to death on its perch before it swal- lows it. Its ordinary note resembles somewhat that of the Red-breasted Swallow." " The breeding-season of the Wood-Swallow is in February and March, both in the north and central -districts. It builds in the former region, to a great extent, in the palmyra palm, placing its nest between the bases of the fronds. A nest which I found so situated in Erinativoe Island was composed of grass and roots, massive in exterior, and rather slovenly put together ; the interior was a shallow cup about 2^in. in diameter, and contained three nestlings. Mr. Bligh informs me that he has found the nest in the hole of a tree situated in a coffee-plantation. " Mr. Cripps .... writes of some nests taken in date- trees (Phoenix sylvestris) ; they were built at the junction of the leaf -stem and trunk, though in two instances they were placed on a ledge from which all the leaves had been removed to enable the tree to be tapped for its juice. In every instance the nest was exposed, and if any bird, even a Hawk, came near, the courageous little fellows, says Mr. Cripps, would drive it off. 'The nests were shallow saucers, made of fine twigs and graces, and with a lining of the same, and contained two to four eggs each.'" "Birds of Ceylon," Vol. II., pp. 668-9. This species was exhibited for the first time at the London Zoological Gardens on March 29th, 1903; being a common bird both in India and Ceylon it is very likely to appear from time to time in the bird-market. SHRIKES (LaniidcK). The Shrikes or Butcher-birds were placed by Seebohm near to the Crows, but generally they are placed nearer to tlie> Flycatchers. They are birds of somewhat pre- daceous habits with powerful bills, short thick mandibles, of which the upper one has the culmen or ridge curved and terminating in a well-defined hook, preceded on the cutting edge by a slight depression, behind which is a prominent wedge-shaped tooth ; the nostrils are oval, lateral, and basal, and there are well-marked rictal bristles as in the Flycatchers. Being more or less pre- daceous, their food in captivity should be varied with fur or feather, small reptiles or batrachians in addition to insects ; raw butchers' meat should be avoided if possible. INDIAN GREY SHRIKE (Lanius laJitora). Above grey; paler on rump and upper taiil-co verts ; larger scapulars almost white ; wing-coverts black, the leeser coverts 'broadly edged with grey ; primaries with the basal half white, the terminal half black; inner- most secondaries black tipped with white, the re- mainder tipped and bordered with white, which occu- pies the greater part of the inner webs; central tail- feathers 'black with narrow white tips, the remainder white at base, bordered externally and broadly tipped white, the two outermost pairs having only the shaft black ; a black frontal streak which extends backwards, enclosing the eye, above the ear-coverts, to the sides of neck ; above it an ill-defined white eyebrow-stripe ; body below pure white ; bill black; feet dark horn- coloured ; irides hazel. No difference of plumage is recorded for the female, and the sexual distinctions in the bills of Shrikes are slight ; such as they are, however, they are worth noting, the bill of the female being very slightly narrower at the base and broader towards the tip than in the male. Ha'b., India and Afghanistan, not extend- ing northward beyond the great mountain ranges (Gadow). Though nearly related to the European Great Grey Shrike, this bird differs in its black forehead and the white on the secondaries. Jerdon ("Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 401) igives the following account oif it: " It affects chiefly low, thin, and thorny jungle, or plains where a few low trees or bushes are sparingly sprinkled. It is not often found in cultivated ground, or near villages. It has the usual habits of the tribe, sitting on top of some low tree, on the _ watch for a cricket, a locust, or for some young or sickly bird to come near. It flies low, near the ground, from one tree to another, and it has a harsh grating cry, but can also sing sweetly; and, it is said, imitates the song of other birds to bring them near. Mr. Phillipps states that he has seen it capture small birds ; and that, in the North- west, it is occasionally trained to do so." " I have seen the nest and eggs on several occasions, from February to May. The nest is rather large, deeply cup-shaped, made of "twigs, roots, etc., and lined with hair or cotton, and the eggs, three to five in number, are dull greenish-white, with a few spots and blotches of greenish-brown and light reddish-brown." In the second edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Vol. I., pp. 306-7, we read: "The Indian Grey Shrike lays from January to August, and occasionally up to October, but the majority of my eggs have been obtained during March or April. " It builds, generally, a very compact and heavy, deep, cup-shaped nest, which it places at heights of from 4 to 10 or 12 feet from the ground in a fork, towards the centre of some densely growing thorny bush 53 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. or moderate-sized tree, the various carounders, capers, plums, and acacias being those most commonly selected. " As a rule it builds a new nest every year, but it not infrequently only repairs one that has served it an the previous season, and even at times takes possession of those of other species. " The nest is composed of very various materials, so much so that it is difficult to generalise in regard to them. I have found them built entirely of grass-roots, with much sheep's wool, lined with hair and feathers, or solidly woven of silky vegetable fibre, mostly that of the putsun (ffibi^n< cinnabinus) , in which were incorporated little pieces of rag and strips of the bark of the wild plum (Zizyphus jujuba) ; but I think that most commonly thorny twigs, coarse grass, and grass- roots form the foody of the nest, while the cavity is lined with feathers, hair, soft grass, and the like. " Generally the nests are very compact and solid, 6 or 7 inches in, diameter, and the egg-cavity 3 to 4 in diameter, and 2 to 2 in depth, but I 'have come across very loosely built and straggling ones. " They have at times two broods in the year (but I do not think that this is always t'he case), and lay from three to six eggs, four or five 'being the usual number." Dr. Russ does not mention this species ; but the London Zoological Society purchased an example in November, 1890. ilr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo says (Tli& Avicultural Magazine, x.s., Vol. III., p. 45): "I nave repeatedly reared the young of Grey Shrikes, notably Lanius ftlf/t rii n*ls, L. dealbatus, and L. hoemitecicurus, and find them most docile, affectionate, and interesting. I fancy they require a good deal of room, or at any rate a certain amount of liberty, and one I had in England used to fly at liberty for hours and hunt for himself ; he would, however, come a quarter of a mile to a certain whistle." BAY-BACKED SHRIKE (Laiiiu* riUntus). Above 'grey-whitish, deeper grey on neck which shades off into deep chestnut or maroon on the mantle and scapulars ; wings black, the least coverts with oroad grey borders ; basal half of primaries pure white ; secondaries with narrow whitish tips ; four central tail- feathers black tipped with white, the remainder also white at the base, increasing in extent outwardly, the outermost feather being almost entirely white ; a broad frontal-band passing into a streak enclosing the eye and continued to tlie nape, black ; cheeks and throat very pale huffish ; body yellow 'white, more or less buff, paler in the centre; flanks more or less chestnut. The female is thus described by Dr. Gadow : "Head ashy grey, shading off into dull rufous on the back and scapulars ; upper tail-coverts ashy grey ; tail dull brown, the feathers edged and tipped with rufous buff, the tips broader on the outer feathers, the outermost pair entirely pale rufous buff ; quills blackish, rather broadly edged with sandy rufous, nearly obsolete on the primaries, which have the same white speculum as the male ; no black frontal band ; forehead whitish, the lores tipped with dusky brown ; ear-coverts dull brown ; cheeks and under surface of body creamy white, washed with rufous on the flanks." According to this author's measurements the female has a shorter wiing and tail than the male. Hab., Indian Peninsula, extending westward into Afghanistan and Baluchistan. Jerdpn ("Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 405) says of this bird: "It frequents low thorny jungle, but is also found in groves, gardens, hedgerows, etc. It has the usual harsh cry of its tribe, but can also utter some very pleasing notes. I never found its nest myself, and it retires from the more open parts of the Deccan to breed. Theobald obtained the nest, which was a com- pact structure, placed in the fork of a thorny tree, made of fibres, silk, spiders' web, lichens, cocoons, etc., and lined inside with down. This was in May and June." In the second edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs '* we read : " Tlie Bay-backed Shrike breeds throughout the plains- of India and in the Sub-Himalayan Ranges up to an elevation of fully 4,000 feet, " The laying-season lasts from April to September, but the great majority of eggs are found during the latter half of June and July ; in fact, according to my experience, the great body of the birds do not lay until the rains set in. "The nests are placed indifferently on all kinds of trees (I have notes of finding them on mango, plum, orange, tamarind, toon, etc), never at any great eleva- tion from the ground, and usually in small trees, be the kind chosen what it may. Sometimes a high hedge- row, such as our great Customs hedge, is chosen, and occasionally a solitary caper or stunted acacia-bush. " The nests (almost invariably fixed in forks of slender boughs) are neat, compactly and solidly built cups, the cavities being deep and rather more than hemispherical, from 2.25 to fully 3.5 inches in diameter, and from 1.5 to 2 inches in depth. The nest-walls vary from 0.5 to 1.25 inch in thickness. The composition of the nest is various." " Elsewhere I have recorded the following note on the nidification of this species: '"This bird, or rather birds of this species, have been laying ever since the middle of April, but nests were then few and far between, and now in July they are common enough. The nest that we had just found was precisely like twenty others that we had found during the past two months. Rather deep, with a nearly hemispherical cavity ; very compactly and firmly woven of fine grass, rags, feathers, soft twine, wool, and a few fine twigs, the whole entwined exteriorly with lots of cobwebs ; and the interior cavitv about 1| inch deep by 2i in diameter, neatly lined with very fine grass, one'or two horsehairs, shreds of string, and one or two soft feathers. The walls were a good inch in thickness. The nest was placed in a fork of a thorny jujuba or ber tree (Zizyphus jujuba}, near the centre of the tree, and some 15 feet from the ground. It contained four fresh eggs, feebly-coloured miniatures of the ecrss of L. JnJifora, which latter so closely re- semble those of L. f.rrultitnr that if you mixed the eggs you could never, I think, certainly separate them again'" (pp. 311-312). The author then proceeds to- describe the egss in detail, but as we are all familiar with Shrikes' eggs, and those of L. htJitm-a have already been described, it seems hardly worth while to quote further. This prettv little Shrike was exhibited for the first time in the London Zoological Gardens in March, 1903. FOUR-COLOURED SHRIKE (Laniarius quadricolor}. " Adult Male. Above crown, ear-coverts, and all the upper surface of the body, including the wing- coverts, the inner secondaries, and the outer webs o the remaining quills, deep grass-green; inner _ webs of quills dusky ; two centre tail-feathers green, with black ends, remaining tail-feathers black, their bases tinged with green ; a line from the bill over the eye orange ; lores and a broad streak through the eye black ; cheeks and throat scarlet, the bases of the feathers yellow ; below the throat a broad pectoral band of black, continuous on either side with a narrow streak of black which originates from the base of the lower mandible ; re- maining lower surface yellow, tinged with scarlet on FLYCATCHERS. 59 the breast and under tail-coverts; the thighs, sides of body, and under wing-coverts green ; lower surface of quills ashy, paler on the inner margins. Iris brown ; bill black; legs and feet lead-colour." (W. L. Sclater.) Mr. Sclater says that the female resembles the male in plumage ; but Dr. Gadow describes it as follows : " All the underparts are green ; the tail uniform olive- green ; the head wanting the black loral and lateral stripes, the black crescent being likewise absent ; throat vermilion ; remainder of the underparts of the body olive-yellow ; under tail-coverts dull yellow ;. sides of breast and flanks green ; the black collar on the chest of the male is represented merely by a few blackish tips on some of the feathers ; bill and feet brown ; lower mandible paler." He also describes the young plumage in both sexes, so that it seems impossible that his female can have been anything but an adult bird. Hab., South-eastern Africa. An excellent figure of the male (Plate XI.) is given in Sharpe's edition of Layard's " Birds of South Africa," Iroin which I extract the following note by Mr. Thomas Ayres : " These birds inhabit the dense bush along the coast, never leaving it ; they creep about the under- wood in search of their food, and are easily obtained by those who can imitate their call, for they will imme- diately answer, and come to the sportsman if within hearing. On perceiving their mistake they make a low churring noise, as they do also if they see a cat, snake, panther, or other beast of prey." (p. 381.) In Stark and Sclater's " Birds of South Africa," Vol. II., p. 36, are the following notes on the habits from the pens of Messrs. Woodward and Millar: "It does not sing, but its cheerful cry, ' kong-kong-koit,' is one of the pleasantest of bush sounds. It is particularly partial to dense thickets, where, when it is disturbed, it makes a croaking noise, and it is difficult to shoot it at such close quarters without destroying its plumage. This Shrike feeds principally on insects, but the natives tell us that it sometimes attacks and kills the small Bush-Wrens, and that they have known them to eat the flesh of birds caught in their snares." " They breed early in November, and although plenti- ful, their nests are rarely found. They build a loosely- constructed nest of twigs lined with dry leaf-stalks, generally placed four or five feet from the ground, in a thicket or among some dried twigs or sticks. " The clutch consists of two or three pretty white eggs delicately marked with grey-brown streaks and splashes, principally at the obtuse end, and measuring about .83 by .58. " The nest being loosely put together, enables one to see through it, and the eggs resembling light and shade renders detection more difficult, which is probably the reason they are not more frequently discovered. I have hunted for hours before spotting the nest, and then wondered how it was possible to have passed it over." Beautiful and highly desirable as this Shrike is, Dr. Russ is only able to record one instance of its importa- tion, the specimen having reached the London Zoological Gardens in 1882, but with the increased interest taken in aviculture it is hardly probable that such a state of things can long continue. Why the Green Cochoa is placed among the Shrikes in the Zoological Society's list I am unable to explain. According to Hume and Gates it is a true Thrush ; its nidification seems to have been imperfectly known when the second edition of the "Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds" was known. It is hardly likely ever to become a well- known cage-bird, although the Zoological Society pur- chased a specimen in April, 1884. The Waxwings are not very desirable cage-birds, on account of their greed and the consequent necessity for providing them with a small aviary. The North. American Cedar-bird is, moreover, so nearly related to- the European Waxwing that it seems hardly worth while to devote space to a description of it, more especially now that the birds of the United States are so strictly preserved and consequently rare in the market. FLYCATCHERS (Muscicapidce). Numerous as these birds are, they are not easy to feed, and consequently are hardly ever imported ; but one species which has reached us in recent years from Australia is so entirely charming and has been so thoroughly studied in captivity, that it would be a positive sin to omit it. BLUE WRKN (Malurus cyaneus). Male in summer with the crown, ear -coverts and a lunar-shaped mark on upper part of back light metallic blue ; lores, line over eye, occiput, scapulars, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts velvety-black ; throat and chest bluish-black, bounded below by a band of velvety- black ; tail deep blue, indistinctly barred with a deeper hue and finely tipped with white ; wings brown ; under surface buffis'h white ; flanks tinged with blue ; bilL black; feet brown; irides blackish-brown. (Gould.) In winter the male Icses all its bright colouring and, much more closely resembles the female. The latter is. brown above, including wings ar.d tail ; the lores and a circle enclosing the eye reddish-brown ; under surface brownish white ; bill reddish brown ; feet flesh-brown. Hab., "South Queensland (?), New South Wales, Vic- toria, and South Australia." (Campbell.) Gould says that this species " gives preference to those parts of the country which (are) thinly covered with low scrubby brushwood, and especially in localities of this description which are situated near the borders of rivers and ravines. During the months of winter it associates. in small troops of from six to eight in number (probably the brood of a single pair), which continually traverse- the district in which they were bred. At this period of the year the adult males throw off their fine livery, ana the plumage of the sexes then becomes so nearly alike that a minute examination is requisite to distinguish them. Tine old males have the bill black at all seasons,, whereas the young males during the first year, and the females, have this organ always brown ; the tail-feathers- also, which with the primaries are only moulted onoe a year, are of a deeper blue in the old male. As spring advances, the small troops separate into pairs, and the males undergo a total transformation, not only in their colour, but in the texture of their plumage; indeed, a more astonishing change can scarcely be imagined. This, change is not confined to the plumage alone, but extends, also to the habits of the bird ; for it now displays great vivacity, proudly shows off its gorgeous attire to the utmost advantage, and pours out its animated song un- ceasingly, until the female has completed her task of incubatiion, and the craving appetites of its newly- hatched young have called forth a new feeling and given its energies a new direction. " During the winter months no bird can be more tame and familiar; for it frequents the gardens and shrubberies of the settlers, and hops about their houses as if desirous to court, rather than shun, the presence of man; but when adorned with its summer plumage, the male becomes more shy and retiring, appearing to have an instinctive consciousness of the danger to which his beauty subjects him ; nevertheless they will fre- quently build their little nest and rear their young in- the most populous places. Several broods are reared annually in the Botanic Garden at Sydney, and I saw a fill FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. pair busily employed in constructing their nest in a tree close to the door of the Colonial Secretary's Office. The -short and rounded wing incapacitates it for protracted night, but the amazing facility with which it passes over the surface of the ground fully compensates for this deficiency ; its mode of progression can scarcely be called running, it is rather a succession of bounding hops, per- .f ormed with great rapidity ; while thus employed its tail is carried perpendicularly, or thrown forward over the back ; indeed, the tail is rarely, if ever, carried hor'.- :zontally. "The breeding-season continues from September to January, during which period two, if not three, broods are reared, the young of one being scarcely old enough to provide for themselves before the female again com- mences laying. Independently of rearing her own young, she is also the foster-parent of the Bronze Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx lucidus), a single egg of which species is frequently found deposited in her nest ; but by what means, is .... unknown. " The nest, which is dome-shaped, with a small hole at the side for an entrance, is generally constructed of grasses, lined with feathers or hair. The site chosen tor its erection is usually near the ground, in a secluded bush or tuft of grass. The eggs are generally four in number, of a delicate flesh-white, sprinkled with spots and blotches of reddish-brown, which are more abundant and form, an irregular zone at the larger extremity ; they are eight lines long by five and a half broad. Tha song is a hurried strain, somewhat resembling that of the Wren of Europe." " Handb. Birds Austral.," Vol. I., pp. 318-20. Campbell ("Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," pp. 163-168) shows that some of Gould's observations renuire modification. He thus describes the nest: "" Globular, side-top entrance ; usually composed of old :greyish weather-beaten grasses with an admixture of cocoons : lined inside with fine yellowish-coloured grass and finally with feathers, hair, down, seed-vessels, etc." He gives the number of eggs in a clutch as " three to four, occasionally five." Furthermore he observes that " while the male Wrens do change their dress," they do not " retain it for a short period," but 'for eight or nine months of the year, or excepting the moulting season. He also quotes Mr. Holroyd's opinion that this species is a polygamist and lias from two to four wives. Mr. Reginald Phillipps, who secured a male and two females of this charming species in 1902 from a con- signment which reached this country in May, was suc- cessful in breeding the species in his garden aviary, where I had the great pleasure of seeing them flying about. From the manner in which the unpaired female was persecuted by the pair which bred he was inclined to discredit the idea of polygamy in this species. He describes the song as rippling twittering and insignifi- cant, but bearing a family resemblance to that of our Wren. "They are very sensitive to cold; their delight when the sun shines into their cage is unbounded. "They seem to be wholly insectivorous." A charming plate illustrates Mr. Phillipps' second paper upon this species, in which the irides are coloured yellow, which seems again to put the late Mr. Mould in the wrong, or is this an artistic licence, like the cater- pillar in the picture? (vide T'li- Avicultural Magazine, N.S., Vol. I., pp. 15-19). I presume that, in captivity, Blue Wrens would pick out tiny fragments of egg, ants' -eggs, and dried flies from the usual soft-food mixture ; but in an outdoor aviary like that in which Mr. Phillipps bred the species, doubtless numerous living insects could be captured by the birds. In addition to the Blue Wren there is another lovely Flycatcher which has of late years appeared more than once at our bird shows, and therefore must not be ignored : RUFOTJS-BELLIED XiLTAVA (XHtaua sundara). Forehead, entire side of hsad, and throat black ; the latter edged at side with blue continuous with that of the nape, the whole crown and nape being glistening bright blue ; upper back black, as well as the inner webs of the wing and tail-feathers ; otherwise both wings and tail are blue ; breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts bright rusty orange, slightly paler on the latter; bill black; feet flesh-brownish; irides dark brown. Female : Above olivaceous brown ; wings dusky, edged with rust-red ; tail rust-red ; below ashy- brown ; a white crescentic bib across front of breast, the points of which join a narrow lavender-blue streak edging the side of neck. Hab., Himalayas, Arrukan, Tenasserim, and Western China. Jerdon says of this species: "It is very common about Darjeeling, from 6,000 feet to 8,000 feet. It fre- quents thick, bushy ground, often near water, is shy and wary, seldom showing itself, but now and then I have seen it seated on a fallen tree or stump, or even a paling by the wayside. It feeds chiefly on insects, which it procures on the ground, generally returning to the same perch whence it came, but it also picks insects off the leaves and branches. It is seldom seen high \;p on trees. Hodgson says that it sometimes eats berries and seeds in winter. I several times procured the nest of this bird, situated on a bank, or in the cleft of a rock, or against the fallen stump of a tree. It is loosely made of moss, lined with a few black fibres : and the eggs, three or four in number, are reddish-white, with the large end nearly covered with minute brick-red spots, forming a large patch of dull brick-red. The eggs are remarkably long-shaped. ''The song is said to be one loud and simple note, frequently repeated. I have not heard it that I am aware of, and always considered it a very silent bird." " Birds of India," Vol. I., p. 474. From Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd ed., Vol. II.. p. 20, I quote the following :" The Rufous-bellied Niltava breeds everywhere in the Hima- layas, at any rate, from Darjeeling to the valley of the Beas (I have no record of its breeding further west). from the middle of April to the middle of May. It places its nest in some rocky ledge or crevice, or in or about some decayed stump or fallen trunk. " A nest of this species, which I took near Kote- gurh on May 15th was a mere pad of mass about 5 inches in diameter and 1^ inches in thickness, with a very broad, shallow depression in the centre. In and about the inner surface of this depression a certain amount of very fine silky fur and one or two do \\ny feathers were interwoven, making a kind of lining. The nest was placed in a hollow at the base of an aged oak. Four is 1 , I believe, the normal number of the e^gs." In Tlf Aririitturcil Mct/fuz'tni', N.S.. Vol. L. pp. 24- 26, Mr. Russell Humphreys gave an account of a male of this species in his po.ssission. which appears to have been hr:)ii_ht home by Mr. E. W. Haider. Ac'-oiVnYig to this gentleman, the son", so far as could be judged by its recording, resembled the warble of the male Red-backed Shrike, and some of the calls those of the English Robin. An excellent coloured plate of both sexes appeared in the succeeding volume. Mr. Pewhiirst ha.s exhibited this specie? at the Crystal Palace, and it appears not to be the same speci- WHITE-EYES. 61 men as that owned by Mr. Humphrys, so that it is quite likely that others may yet he imported. Fruit and insects are. the chief articles of diet. CHAPTER VII. WH ITE=E YES (Zosierojndai). This group of birds has been referred to the Tits (I'uridce), Honey-eaters (Meliphagidce) and Sunbirds (Xi'i-fariniii/ic), but Dr. Gadow has shown that the structure of the tongue removes it from the first and third and from most of the forms usually included in the second ; therefore it has been thought better to consider Zosterops as typical of a distinct family. The species are characterised by modest colouring, usually olivaceous or mouse-coloured above and yellow below, the eye surrounded by a conspicuous ring of white feathers which induced the dealers to give them the trivial name of Spectacle-Birds.* They are small, active little creatures, vaguely recalling our Willow-Warbler and its allies, and feeding upon insects and fruits. In captivity they do well on the same treatment as that provided for other delicate fruit-eating insectivors. Although in 1872 the Zoological Society of London received six examples of the New Zealand form Zost/'rops latcralis, presented by Mr. Bills in August, it is unlikely that this bird, if distinct, will appeal- again in the London market. The destruction of the native birds by cats and other vermin imported into the islands and the strict laws for the preservation of such birds as have not been exterminated, militate against the chance of British aviculturists seeing much of this or others of the birds of New Zealand which formerly were occasionally brought home. Dr. Russ reg rds Z Jatcrali* as a mere synonym of Z. dorsalis, but the List of the Zoological Society records both as distinct species. THE GREY-BACKED WHITE-EYE (Zosterops ccerulescens). " Crown of the head, wings, and tail olive ; back dark grey ; eyes surrounded by a zone of white feathers, bounded in front and below with black; throat, centre of the abdomen, and under tail-coverts greyish white with a slight tinge of olive ; flanks light chestnut brown ; upper mandible dark brown ; under mandible lighter ; irides and feet, greyish brown. In some specimens the throat and sides of the head are Avax-yellow, and the flanks are only stained with chest- nut brown." Gould. The sexes are said to be alike in plumage, but, from what I have seen of Zosterops, I should judge that the female would be slightly paler in all its hues and a little smaller. According to Finsch, the female of Z. lateralis is paler in the green and grey of the upper parts, and I have noticed that the female of the Chinese species (and I think of this bird also) showed a less vivid yellow on the underparts. Without question, the female has a longer bill with less arched culmen. Mr. Gould gives the following account of this species, which I cannot do better than quote verbatim: This bird is stationary in all parts of Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia, where it is not only to be met with in the forests and thickets, but also in nearly every garden. It even 'builds its nests and rears its young in the shrubs and rose-trees bordering the walks. Among the trees of the forest the 'beautiful Lepfosperm-um is the one to which at all times this species evinces a great partiality. * This is, of course, a translation of the German name Brillenvogel. " Its flight is quick and darting, and when among; the branches of the trees it is as active as most birds, prying and searching with scrutinising care into the- leaves and flowers for the insects upon which it feeds. It is sometimes seen singly or in pairs, while at others, it is to >be observed in great numbers, on the same or neighbouring trees. It is of a familiar disposition, and utters a pretty and very lively song. '' The ^breeding sea.son commences in September and continues to January. The nest is one of the neatest structures possible ; it is of a round, deep, cup-shaped form, composed of fine grasses, moss, and wool, and most carefully lined with fibrous roots and grasses. The eggs are usually three in nu-m'ber, of a beautiful uniform pale .blue, eight and a half lines long by six: broad."* "Handbook Birds of Australia," Vol. I.,, pp. 587-8. I quote the following from Campbell's " Nests and' Eggs of Australian Birds," pp. 347-8: "Though an- orchard pest, the little White-Eye is a very interesting species, while its small shapely nest, with its beautiful bluish-green eggs, are amongst ithe models of nidiology."" " Gould regarded it as a stationary species. I have found their pretty nests in the coastal scrubs during summer, while in winter the birds in small companies are frequently seen darting about our gardens, where- they are specially fond of the heating berries of the pepper-tree (Schinns). When threading the branches, feeding, a bird occasionally titters a soft, sweet, chat- tering warble, as if singing inwardly, or to itself. The- well-known call or alarm, note is a short, feeble, whutle- like sound, often repeated. " While mentioning pepper-trees, I may mention that my son Archie was once watching White-Eyes feeding- in our tree, when a Sparrow (introduced) intruded. One of the White-Eyes, with his sharp little beak, made a; lunge at the Sparrow, piercing it to the heart, so that it immediately fell dead beneath, and was brought to- me for examination." "My friend Mr. Ed. D'Omibrain presented me with- three White Eyes, which he trapped in his garden. They are fed on ground sweet biscuit and fruit, and are now thriving in the aviary with a pair of Canaries."" It appears that although this species is rather an annoyance to fruit-growers, from its love of cherries, which it probes with its sharp bill in order to feed on the pulp, it is nevertheless a most valuable friend to the gardener from the quantities of blight and other small insect pests which it devours. In confinement this bird sings rather prettily ; it is- easily kept, ibeing fed upon ripe orange or over-ripe pears (even isweet apple), and sweet-water grapes split open ; also potato chopped up with yolk of egg and' any good insectivorous bird-food slightly damped. It will also do< well for a time on moistened sponge cake- and fruit. INDIAN WHITE-EYE (Zoxtrropx palpebrosus). In colouring it is olive-green above, the throat and. fore-chest bright yellow, belly white in the middle, flanks greyish, thighs and under tail-coverts yellowish, bill blackish, feet leaden grey, a circle of white feathers round the eve. the iris pale 'brown. Hab., India,. Cevlon, and Tenasserim. In its wild staite this species may be seen clinging to- flower-stalks, and in Ceylon is said to affect the tulip- trees in the principal street of the Fort at Colombo ; is feeds apparently not on the nectar of flowers, but on the tiny insects which are found therein, and it is- * Three to four according to Campbell. 62 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. also stated to eat the fruit of a small Indian black- berry. It is moderately gregarious, but extremely active, and as it flits hither and thither it is isaid to twitter incessantly. The nest is a neat deep cup, usually fixed in the fork of a berberry or other low bush ; the eggs, two to three in number, are greenish- 'bltie, or pale blue inclining to whitish. The song, according to Dr. Russ, resembles that of the Grasshopper Warbler ; the species -was bred by Mr. 'Oesterlin, of Mannheim, but not successfully, one young one being hatched from the first nest, which died when eight days old. A second nest was built, and three eggs laid, when the hen died, and the cock bird wearied of the task of incubation after four days. Probably a garden aviary in a sunny position would be the most suitable place in which to attempt to breed Zoster ops. This bird appears to have been more freely imported into Germany than England. CHINESE WHITE-EYE (Zosterops simplex.) Above it is olive-green, somewhat tawny on the crown ; chin and throat, as well as under tail-coverts, THE CHINESE WHITE-EYE. bright yelloAv, remainder of under parts white, greyish on the flanks ; lores blackish, a ring of white feathers encircling the eye ; iris amber, bill 'blackish, feet leaden .grey. Hab., China, Hainau, and Formosa. Mr. E. W. Styan ("On the Birds of the Lower Yangtse Basin." The Ibis, 1891, p. 352) says: "I met with large flocks during the last days of October, when it was probably preparing to move south. A pair nested in a garden at Kiukiang in June a small cup- shaped nest, hung in a bush, about 4ft. from the ground. I did not see the eggs." Mr. J. C. Kershaw (" On the Birds of the Quangtung Coast, The, Ibis, 1904, p. 236) says : " Very common, -moving about the country in little flocks. Resident, and nesting about end of April." Messrs. La Touche and Rickett (" On the Nesting of Birds in Fohkien," The Ibis, 1905, p. 31) give more in- formation : " Common and resident on the low grounds, but apparently rare on the higher levels. " The nests vary a good deal in the amount of materials employed in the construction, some being little more than a frail network of fine dry grass bound to- gether and secured to the supporting twig by cobwebs, while others are quite substantial little cups of moss, fine dry grass, roots, and fibres. They are either slung like a hammock in the fork of a twig or attached to the side of one. They measure about 2in. in diameter. "The eggs are pale greenish bine, and average .60 x -47 in. There are three or four in a clutch. " Some caged birds of this species kept by La, Touche became grey above in the place of green ; the reddish "flanks turned deeper in shade, while the yellow throat faded almost to white." Of my pair, referred to below, which I received about 1894 or'l895, the female died on December 12th, 1898, as the first volume of my " Foreign Bird-Keeping " was preparing for the press. At the tame of her death all the orange tinting had disappeared from the forehead and throat, the latter and front of breast having become pale primrose, the flanks also had become a little deeper in tint, as noted by Mr. La Touche. I feel certain that when they first came into my hands the sexes were mnch more alike and that they do not naturally dill strikingly as shown in my skins. The male died about a year after it came into my possession, and thei was presumably normal in colouring. Although unnamed until 1862, this is the most freely imported of all the " White Eyes " or Spectacle-birds, yet Dr. Russ does not recognise any imported Chinese species. Mr. Joseph Abrahams generously presented me with my pair of Zosterops, which, at the time, he told me were Chinese. Spectacle-birds, and the day I received them I nearly lost them both, owing to their having taken the earliest opportunity of having a. downright good bath. They came out of it shivering and appa- rently with only a few scattered strings sticking on a naked body in place of plumage. The male tn- get up the wires, then suddenly turned faint, hung backwards from hLs claws, and fell gasping an the sand. I picked up both birds, held them in my hands until they were a little warmer, when the hen began to -struggle, so I released her, and she wa.s soon on the perch, combing out her straggling feathers. The cock seemed little, if at all, better, so I put him into a small travelling cage, and stood it near the fire. Pre- sently he got on the perch, and a minute later had a sort of fit. I snatched up the cage, and found it too warm, so took out the bird and held it in my hand. Its head hung sideways, with the bill wide open and the shut. Presently the bill closed with a snap, and the claws clutched my little finger. 1 thought the bird was at its last gasp, when suddenly the head was lifted, the eyes opened, and the bird began to look about. I now took it out. and placed it on the perch beside its mate, who began to preen its feathers. Half an hour later both birds wei*e lively as ever. One thing specially noticeable about these birds is that the process of moulting is i-o gradual as to be practically imperceptible. The birds, whether moulting or not, are always, to all appearance, in the pink of perfection. THE WHITE-EVE. This is the more extraordinary as I had been led to believe that during their moult they Ix-came perfectly bare of feathers, dropping the whole crop simul- taneously. It is rare to hear the song of this bird, though one is familiar with its excited, reedy /.-//>, /,. t*lp, re- peated as it flits about its cage ; this is doubtless its call-note. The true song I never heard until February, FLOWER-PECKERS. 63 1898, when my bird sang a clear Cicada-like trill, not unlike the performance of our Grasshopper Warbler, but less prolonged. JAPANESE WHITE-EYE (Zv*ti'rj,.< ja/mnica). . Nearly related to the preceding species, but with the breast and flanks pale chestnut- brown instead of pale smoky grey. Hab., Japan only. Seebohm ("Birds of the Japanese Empire," p. 68) says: "The Japanese White-Eye is a resident in all the Japanese Islands, and is peculiar to Japan. It is not very common in Yezzo, but was obtained at Hako- dadi as long ago as 1853." " The nest of the Japanese White-Eye is a beautiful .st nicture composed entirely of moss, patched outbade with large pieces of lichen, and lined inside with horse- hair. It is rather flat in shape, and is evidently a ground nest." (Jouy, Proc. United States Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 288. ) Eggs in the Pryer collection are un- spotted bluish white, of the dimensions of full-sized Willow- Warbler's eggs. According to Russ, Miss Hagenbeck imported a single example of this .species ; then a pair reached the Berlin Zoological Gardens in 1892 ; later in 1895 G. Bosz of Cologne imported a great number into the trade. He adds the following notes of interest to the general reader : " Professor Dr. Brauns of Tokio says that the species may be found at all times in Central Japan, and as a migrant it associates especially with the swarms of different kinds of Titmice. This also Blakiston and Pryer had maintained, as they had noticed the species as a common bird in winter in the plains. " It sings," writes Dr. Brauns, " if not very loud, yet charmingly, and in the home is accounted one of the best and most perfectly tameable household companions. Xaturally its upkeep requires animal matter as food, but one can buy this almost anywhere in Japan as a prepared mixture. The latter, I am told, is prepared mainly from crayfish which are not eaten here and perhaps it is as near as one can get to an insectivorous food-mixture. This Spectacle-bird consequently is one of the most abundant cage-birds, continually offered for sale in all shops, although it is not yet one of the most admired of birds." It seems hardly likely that crayfish would form the basis of a mixture for insectivorous birds ; but what other translation one can give to the term " river-crabs " I don't know. It is far more likely that the mixture consisted largely of the so-called water-boatmen to which the fancy name of "dried flies" has been given by bird- caterers. CAPE WHITE-EYE (Zosterops capensis). Above olive-green, yellowish on rump and upper tail- coverts ; flights and tail-feathers brown, washed externally with olive ; forehead olivaceous yellow ; lores black ; the visual white ring of feathers round eye ; ear- coverts and skies of face green ; cheekc and throat bright yellow, changing to pale brown on breast and abdomen; sides greyish, flanks fulvescent; under tail- coverts bright yellow ; axillaries and under wing-coverts yellowish white; bill and feet bluish-grey, the meta- tarsus yellowish ; iris brownish-yellow. Female said to resemble the male, probably a trifle paler and with more slender bill. Hab., South Africa. I take the following notes on the habits of this bird from Stark and Sclater's " Birds of South Africa," Vol. I., p. 303: "The common White-Eye, when not breeding, is invariably in small family parties, consist- ing of the parent-birds and the young of the preceding season, or frequently, of several family parties conjoined. They generally attract attention by the somewhat sharp ' chirp ' that every individual bird constantly utters both while feeding and when flying from tree to tree. They are, as a rule, extremely tame, feeding undisturbed within a few feet of an observer, diligently hunting over the leaves and twigs, and peering into the blossoms in search of small larvae and insects, and especially of some of the scale- in sects (Schizoneurce). At certain seasons they feed to a considerable extent on soft fruits, apricots, plums, and especially blackberries ; they are fond, too, of the saccharine juices of many flowers, and, in the Municipal Gardens at Cape Town, constantly resort to various favourite shrubs, notably the Australian ' Bottle- brush,' for the sake of the nectar of the blossoms. From constantly probing the corollas of flowers, the feathers of the head are nearly always more or less dusted over with pollen, and these little birds, like the Sunbirds, must play a considerable part in the cross-fertilization or many plants. " The nest tis buidt among the smaller twigs at the extremity of a horizontal branch of a bush or low tree. It is very small, of a shallow cup-shape, and is neatly constructed of fine tendrils and moss, glued together with cobweb and frequently decorated on the outside with pieces of grey lichen. The interior is lined with hair. The eggs, four or five in number, are unspotted pale blue. They measure 0.66 x 0.50. " Both parents incubate the eggs, which are hatched at the end of ten days. The nestlings are fed on soft larvae, smaJl caterpillars and the .saccharine juices of flowers by both male and female.'' Dr. Russ says that BO far as he knows this species has only once been imported, three examples having reached Europe towards the beginning of 1880 ; he does not .seem to know what became of them. Of course there is no more reason why it should not foe freely imported like the Chinese- and Australian species, and doubtless one of these days some enterprising dealer will 'bring home a. number. YELLOW WHITE-EYE (Zosterops ftavd). Greenish yellow, forehead and upper tail-coverts bright yellow ; flights and tail-feathers blackish-brown with yellow margins ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white or yellowish ; 'body below yellow ; sides of breast somewhat dingy; bill blackish"; feet lead-coloured; irides brown. Female similar, ibut probably slightly paler and with more slender 'bill. Hab., Sumatra, Java and Borneo. Dr. Russ regrets that he has been unable to discover any notes on the wild life of this bird ; and unfor- tunately I have had no 'better luck, but there is a gre it sameness in the wild life of all the species, as will be seen by comparing the accounts of the preceding forms. In February, 1877, Ch. Jamrach imported thirteen examples of the Yellow White-Eye into the London market, of which a pair was forwa.rded to Dr. Russ, but arrived dead, but nevertheless were useful in estab- lishing the species ; he regrets that he is unable to say what became of the remaining examples, and since that time no more have been imported to his know- ledge, yet there is no reason why they should not again appear in the market. FLOWER=PECKERS (Dicaid,?). To this family the genus Pardalotus has been referred by Dr. Sharpe ; but Prof. Newton thinks tha't, if rightly placed here, the name of the family ought to be changed on the ground that Pardalotus antedates J)'u-,i inn. I am afraid, if this rule were stringently followed, the names of many families in the various classes of animals would have to be altered. Although Prof. Xewton says that the Diamond-birds (Australian 64 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. trivial name for the Pardalotes or Panther-birds) have been erroneously referred to the above family he does not say where they ought to be placed, and as Campbell accepts Dr. Sharpe's decision I am afraid I must do so also ; in their habits they reseirible the Titmice (Pur it/ n) pretty closely, but I should 'be very sorry to tautest that they were related to them; one of these days some anatomist will dou'btless decide what is their natural position. SPOTTED PANTHER-BIRD (Pardalotus punctatus).* Crown and nape, wings, and tail black, with a round white spot at the tip of each fea.ther ; a white eyebi'ow- .stripe from base of 'bill to beyond eye ; ear-coverts and sides of neck grey; feathers of back fawn-colour, grey at base and with 'black edges ; rump and upper tail- coverts mahogany red-brown, the tail-coverts redder ; throat and 'breast bright golden yellow ; abdomen sandy bullish, tawny on the flanks ; under tail-coverts yellow ; bill black ; feet flesh-brown ; irides dark brown. Female with the colours less pronounced and no yellow on the throat. Hab., " Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia, and Tasmania, including some of the islands in Bass' Strait." Camp- bell. An excellent illustration of the male in two positions by Mr. Norman B. Roberts accompanies an article on this bird which I published in June, 1900. (Tlic Avi- fi/!fi/n/l Magazine, 1st Series, Vol. VI., pp. 165-9.) Gould save of this species: "It is incessantly engaged in searching for insects among' the foliage, both of trees of the highest growth and of the lowest shrubs ; it frequents gardens and enclosures as well as the open forest ; and is exceedingly active in its actions, clinging and moving about in every variety of position both above and beneath the leaves with equal facility. "With regard to the nidification of the species, it is a singular circumstance that, in the choice of situa- tion for the reception of its nest, it differs from every other known member of the genus ; for while they always nidify in the holes of trees, this species descends to the ground, and, availing itself of any little shelving "bank, excavates a hole just large enough to admit of the passage of its body, in a nearly horizontal direction to the depth of two or three feet, at the end of which a chamber is formed in which the nest is deposited. The nest itself is a neat and beautifully built structure, formed of strips of the inner bark of the Eucalypti, and lined with finer strips of the same or similar materials ; it is of a spherical contour, about four inches in diameter, with a small hole in the side for an entrance. The chamber is generally somewhat higher than the mouth of the hole, by which means the risk of its being inundated upon the occurrence of rain is obviated. I have been fortunate enough to discover many of the nests of this species, but they are most 'litticult to detect, and are only to be found" by watch- irg for the egress or ingress of the parent birds from or into their hole or entrance, which is frequently formed in a part of the bank overhung with herbage, or beneath the overhanging roots of a tree. How so neat a structure as is the nest of the Spotted Diamond-bird should be constructed at the end of a hole where no light can possibly enter is beyond our comprehension. The eggs are four or five in number, rather round in form, of a beautiful polished fleshy-white, seven and a * Some years ago Profes s or Alfred Newton objected to my adop- tion of this German name for the species, in place of the Australian name Diamond-bird ; but I pointed out that there were other Diamond-birds in Australia the Diamond-Sparrow and the Diamond- Dove ind a dealer would ba confused by so many ; to that ' Panther-bird" was pre r erable. hall lines long by six and a half lines broad. "The song of the Spotted Diamond-bird is a rather harsh piping note of two syllables often repeated." " Handb. Birds Australia." Vol. I., pp. 157-8. According to Dr. Ramsay, the nest consists of a lining to the spherical chamber at the end of the burrow, and is sometimes formed of grass. Sometimes it is placed in a hollow log, a crevice in an old wall, a niche under a shelving rock, or the banks of water-holes or creeks, but never in the hollow branches of trees like those of other birds. When blown the eggs are pearly white. The breeding-seas m sometimes commences as early as July and lasts until the end of December, three broods being reared. W T hen building, according to Mr. C. C. Brittlebank the male collects till his bill is full of bark, which he gives to his mate; he then collects his own load and carries it to the nest. Mr. Campbell says that a nest which he " found in a West Australian forest was only eight or nine inches in the ground with a chamber three and a half inches in diameter." " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," p. 444. This beautiful little bird was imported by the late Mr. .!. Abraham? in 1882. He sent a pair to Dr. Iluss. but unfortunately they were dead when they reached him. There is not the least reason why they should not be freely imported. With a stock of any good insectivorous food there ought to be no difficulty. HONEY=EATERS ( Though, there is not much prospect of aviculturists recuring many Pot-birds in the future, it has been such a notable cage-bird in the past that it must not be passed over. POE HONEY-EATER, Tri, OR PAIISOX-BIRD (Prosthemadera nova-zealandia. I. Shining metallic green with purple reflections on the shoulders, rump and upper tail-coverts ; hind neck with collar of soft curved filamentous feathers having white central lines; middle of back and scapulars bronze- brown, the latter with blue reflections ; greater wing- coverts metallic green, the outer ones glossy blackish purple ; intermediate ones white in their apical portion. forming a distinct wing bar ; flights black ; primaries with metallic gresn outer edges towards base ; this- colour increases on the secondaries until it covers the whole web ; tail metallic green with purplish reflec- tions; lower breast metallic green changing to purplish Hue; sides and abdomen blackish brown, the long flank feathers shading into pale brown ; under surface of wings and tail black ; under wing-coverts metallic green ; throat ornamented with two tufts of curled whit,- filamentous feathers ; bill and feet blackish brown ; iride> dark brown. Female smaller, less brightly coloured, more brown on underparts ; tufts on throat siraller. llab.. New Zealand. Sir Walter Buller Bays: "This i* one of our mos: common species, and on that account generally receives less attent:on in its own country than its singular beauty merits." "It is incessantly on the move, pausing only to utter its joyous notes. The early morning is the period devoted to melody, and the Tuis then perform in concert, gladdening the woods with their wild ecstacy. Besides their chime of five notes (always preceded by a key-note of preparation), they indulge in a peculiar outburst which has been facetiously described as 'a HOXEY-EATERS. 65 cough, a laugh, and a sneeze,' and a variety of other notes entitling it to be ranked as a songster. "Its flight is rapid, graceful, and slightly undulating, the rustling of the wings as they are alternately opened and closed being distinctly audible. " The food of the Tui consists of ripe berries of various kinds, flies and other insects, and the honey of certain wild flowers. " The nest of this species is usually placed in the fork of a bushy shrub, only a few feet from the ground, but I have also found it at a considerable elevation, hidden among the leafy top of a forest tree. It is rather a large structure, composed chiefly of sprays or dry twigs, intermixed with coarse green moss, the cavity being lined with fibrous grasses, very carefully bent and adjusted. Sometimes the interior is composed of the black hair-like substance from the young shoots of the tree-fern, the cavity being lined with dry bents." " The eggs are generally three or four in number, and present some variety in form, and colour. They are white, with a faint rosy blush, stained, mottled and freckled with reddish-brown ; or more or less speckled only at the larger end ; sometimes almost pure white." (Cf. Buller's "Birds of New Zealand.") The Zoological Society's List records nineteen examples of this species as having been exhibited in the Gardens at Regent's Park, and at one time the Poe-bird or Tui used to 'be a familiar object at bird shows, but of late years I have not seen a specimen. There is much difference of opinion as to the most suitable food for captive Parson-birds, the following having been recommended toy various aviculturists who have kept it : Boiled potato mashed up with moist sugar ; potato mashed up with condensed milk ; crushed ibiscuit mixed with condensed milk ; stale breadcrumbs two parts, Abrahams' food one part, moistened with grated carrot and mixed with a little preserved yolk of egg; Carl Capelle's food, and ants' cocoons. I should feed them precisely as I do Tanagers, on my regular soft-food mixture, orange, banana, and a few mealworms, and I am quite sure they would do -well. A very interesting paper on the Australian Honey- eaters from the pen of Mr. A. J. Campbell appeared in The Avicultural Magazine, N.S., Vol. I., pp. 347-353, with notes on various species kept in captivity in their native land. LTTNTTLATED on WHITE-NAPED HONEY-EATER (Melithreptus lunulatus). Above greenish olive ; head and chin black ; a white crescentic marking on the occiput ; a scarlet naked space above eye ; wings and tail brown ; outer webs of primaries with their apical half edged with grey ; basal half, outer webs of secondaries and tail feathers washed with greenish olive ; below white ; bill blackish brown ; feet olive ; irides dark brown. Female similar, but smaller. Hab., Wide Bay, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. "It inhabits almost every variety of situation, but gives a decided preference to the Eucalypti and Anqo- phorce trees, among the smaller branches of which it may be constantly seen actively engaged in searching for insects, which, with the pollen and honey of the flower-cups, constitute its food. It is a stationary species, and breeds during the months of August and September; its beautiful, round, cup-shaped, open nest is composed of the inner rind of the stringy bark or other allied gum-trees, intermingled with wool and hair, warmly lined with opossum's fur, and is suspended by the rim to the small leafy twigs of the topmost branches of the Eucalypti. The eggs are two or three in number, of a pale buff, dotted all over, but particularly at the larger end, with distinct markings of rich reddish brown and chestnut-red, among which are a few clouded mark- ings of bluish grey ; their medium length is nine lines, and breadth six and a half lines. " Like the young of M . chloropsis, the young birds of this species breed some time before they have attained their green livery ; at all events, I have found examples breeding in a state of plumage, which I believe to be characteristic of youth." Gould, " Handb. Birds Austral.." I., pp. 568-9. A. J. North, "Catalogue of Nests and Eggs," etc., p. 227, observes: "Amongst a number of nests pre- sented by Dr. Ramsay to the Trustees of the Australian Museum is one of this species, taken in October, 1864 ; it is a deep, cup-s'haped structure, outwardly comiposed of shreds of stringy bark (Eucalyptus obliqua), closely matted and held together with cobweb, wool, etc., and lined inside with hair ; it is slung by the rim to the leafy twigs of a eucalyptus, exterior measurements 2^in. in diameter, by 2in. in depth. Eggs two or three in number for a sitting, of a yellowish buff ground-colour, with spots of a deeper and more reddish hue, some specimens being uniformly spotted all over, but more often assuming the form of a zone." "This bird usually breeds during August and the three following months in Victoria, but there are eggs of this species in the Dobroyde Collection taken at Dobroyde, New South Wales, in June, 1859, and July, 1861. In The Avicultural Magazine, 1st Series, Vol. VI., pp. 99-100, the Rev. C. D. Farrar published an account of some birds brought home by a friend of his as M. lunulatus. His description of them does not correspond with any Honey-eater recorded by Gould, and that it does not agree at all with the description of the Lunu- lated Honey-eater may be seen by a comparison of the following two accounts : FARRAR. Head olive-green. Wings olive-green. Breast soft mouse-colour. Underwing-butts a patch of saffron. A crescent of saffron on cheek. Bill yellow, tipped with horn. Feet lead-colour. Possibly the birds may not even have been Honey- eaters, but Mr. Farrar says they refused all other food after honey had beerr procured for them. Then the question arises as to whether M. lunulatus ever has been imported yet. Ruas does not record it. STRONG-BILLED HONEY-EATER (Melithreptus valid irostris). Upper surface greyish olive, brighter on rump and outer edges of tail feathers ; crown black, with an occipital band of white terminating at each eye; bare skin over eye greenish-white ; back of neck black ; wings brown, tinted with olive ; ear-coverts and chin black ; throat white ; under parts otherwise brownish-grey ; bill black ; feet brownish horn-colour ; irides reddish-brown. The female is probably smaller, though said not to be. The young have the bill and feet yellow, the latter paler than the former ; a circle of the same colour round eye and the band at the occiput yellow. Hab., Tasmania, King-Island, and probably Furneaux group. Mr. Gould says that this species is so universally dis- tributed over Tasmania " that scarcely any part is with- E GOULD. Head black. Wings brown. Breast white. A white crescent on occiput. Bill blackish-brown. Feet olive. 66 FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. out its presence. The crowns of the highest mountains, as well as the lowlands, if clothed with Eucalypti, are equally enlivened by it. Like all the other members of the genus, it frequents the email leafy and flowering branches ; it differs, however, from its congeners in one remarkable character that of alighting upon and clinging to the surface of the boles of the trees in search of insects. I never saw it run up and down the trunk, but merely fly to such parts as instinct led it to select as the probable abode of insects. "I am indebted to the Rev. Thomas J. Ewing, D.D., for the nest and eggs of this bird, which I failed in pro- curing during my stay in Tasmania. Like those of the other members of the genus, the nest is round and cup- shaped, suspended by the rim, and formed of coarse, wiry grasses, with a few blossoms of grasses for a lining ; the eggs are three in number, eleven lines long by eight lines broad, and of a dull olive-buff, thickly spotted and blotched with markings of purplish brown and bluish grey, the latter appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. " The song consists of a couple of notes, and is not remarkable for its melody." " Handbook Birds Austral.," Vol. I., p. 665. According to Mr. Campbell, the breeding season is from August to December. Mr. North describes the eggs as fleshy-buff, becoming darker towards the larger end, where they are thickly spotted with purplish-brown and superimposed markings of deep greyish-lilac. (Of. Cat. Nests and Eggs, p. 225.) Dr. Russ says that this Honey-sucker has altogether been only once imported alive, in the year 1880, when it arrived at the Zoological Gardens of Amsterdam. But may not Mr. Farrar's birds have "been young of this species in their transitional stage towards the adult colouring ? Mr. Carrick says that he has imported -V. atricajnllus. WARTY-FACED HONEY-EATER (MelipJiaga phrygia}. Black ; scapulars broadly margined with pale yellow ; lower back margined with yellowish-white ; upper tail- coverts margined with pale yellow ; wing-coverts mar- gined with yellow ; bastard wing yellow ; primaries with broadly yellow outer martriri, part of inner web along the shaft yellow ; secondaries with broadly yerow- margined outer web ; feathers of tmder surface with subterminal arrow-shaped yellowish-white markings ; central tail-feathers with small yellow tips, the re- mainder increasingly yellow r to the outermost ones ; bill black ; feet 'blackish -brown : hides reddish-brown ; the face covered with dull yellowish-white warty excres- cences. Female similar, but much smaller. Yonnrr without warty .excrescences, the face partly clothed with feathers. Hab., Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Gould savs of this species: "Although it is very generally distributed, its presence appears to be de- pendent upon the state of the EiicaJi/pfi. upon whose blossoms it mainly depends for subsistence ; it is conse- quently only to 'be found in any particular localitv during the season that those trees are in blossom. ' It generally resorts to the loftiest and most fullv-flowered tree, where it frequentlv reigns supreme, buffeting and driving every other bird awav from its immediate neigh- bourhood ; it is, in fact, the most pugnacious bird I ever saw. evincing particular hostility to the smaller Meliphasyidce, and even to others of its own species that may venture to approach the trees upon which two or three have taken their station. While at Adelaide. in South Australia, I observed two pairs that had nosserjsed themselves of one of the high trees that had been left standing in the middle of the city, which tree during the whole period of my stay they kept sole possession of, sallying forth and beating off every bird that came near. I met with it in great abundance among the brushes of New iSouth Wales, and also found it breeding in the low apple-tree flats of the Upper Hunter. I have occasionally seen flocks of from fifty to a hundred in number, passing from tree to tree as if engaged in a partial migration from one part of the country to another, or in search of a more abundant supply of food. " The nest, which is usually constructed on the over- hanging branch of a eucalyptus, is round, cup-shaped, about five inches in diameter, composed of fine grasses, and lined with a little wool and hair. The eggs are two in number, of a deep yellowish-buff, marked all over with indistinct spots and irregular blotches of chestnut-red and dull purplish-grey, particularly at the larger end, where they frequently form a zone ; they are eleven lines long by eight lines and a half broad. " The stomachs of the specimens I killed and dissected on the Hunter were entirely filled with liquid honey ; insects, however, doubtless form a considerable portion of their diet." " Handb. Birds Austral.," Vol. I., pp. 527-8. Campbell says (" Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds," p. 382): "The peculiar plaintive song, accompanied with the bowing of the head, of the Warty-faced Honey- eater is very agreeable." The same author quotes from Mr. Hermann Lau, that " the site of its big nest is at about the height of twenty feet in a tree, and always near a thick stem or a few sprouting shoots. It "is roughly_ made of coarse, dry grass, lined with rootlets and animal hair. Deposits two or three eggs." It breeds from the end of September to December. Russ says that hitherto this bird has only been once imported, four examples having reached the London Zoological Gardens in 1882. He therefore thinks it is of little interest to aviculturists, but in this opinion I think he is mistaken, because when a species has once been imported there is always a likelihood that it may be imported again, and I am not at all certain that the instance which he mentions is the only one in which it has reached the London market. WHITE-EARED HONEY-EATER (Ptilotis leucotis). Above yellowish-olive ; crown grey, with longitu- dinal black streaks ; ear-feathers silvery white ; tail tipped with yellowish-white ; throat and breast black ; abdomen yellowish-olive ; bill black ; feet greenish lead- grey ; irides greenish -grey. Female similar, but con- siderably smaller Hab., Australia, excepting in the north. Gould says that this bird " is as much an inhabitant of the mountainous as of the lowland parts of the country, and is always engaged in creeping and cling- ing about among the leafy branches of the Eucalypti, particularly those of a low or stunted growth. " Its note is loud, and very much resembles that of the Ptilotis penicillata. The stomach is small and mem- branous, and the food consists of insects of various kinds." "Handb. Birds Austral.," Vl. I., p. 510. Mr. Campbell says : "The bird is an enrly breeder. I had always to be afield in the coastal scrubs' about the beginning of September if I wanted fresh eggs. The nest is difficult to find amongst the acres of thick, short scrub, and frequently is only detected by watching the movements of the birds, which at all times are exceed- ingly wily. My greatest find of White-eared Honey- eaters' nests was in 1883, if I recollect rightly, when I found three nests, all situated about a foot from the ground, and lined with a thick warm ply of oow-hairs wonderfully woven. HONEY-EATERS. 67 " It is interesting to watch the birds plucking hair off while perched on the backs of cattle, and rather a difficult task it proves for the -bird to effect lodgment, especially if the cow patronised 'be not in an amiable mood, when she tosses her head angrily and switches her tail from flank to flank, while the bird, fluttering over, waits an opportunity to dodge the appendage, and between each lash plucks a few hairs till a mouth- ful is obtained, then flies to its nest." Mr. Campbell describes the nest and eggs as follows : -" Nest : Cup-shaped, deep ; well constructed of fine bark and grass, matted together with spiders' cocoons ; lined inside with a warm ply of cow or other hair ; usually placed near the ground, in a thick bush or in low scrub. Dimensions over all, 3 inches to 4 inches by 2^ to 3^ inches in depth ; egg cavity 2 inches across by 1 inches deep. " Eggs : Clutch two usually, three occasionally ; stout oval ; texture fine ; surface slightly glcssy ; colour almost white, but sometimes of a delicate flesh-tint, sparingly but distinctly marked and spotted with pinkish-red, the spots being more about the upper quarter. Dimensions in inches of a proper pair ; (1) .B6 x -64, (2) .85 x .63." "Nests and Eggs of Aus- tralian Birds," pp. 396-7. The Zoological Gardens of Hamburg received a single example of this Honey-eater in 1881, and Dr. Russ believes that up to the present time this is the only instance of its importation. YELLOW-TUFTED HONEY-EATER (Ptilctis auricomis). Above dark brown, slightly olivaceous ; primaries and tail-feathers margined with olive-yellow ; crown of head olive-yellow ; a black line from base of -bill, en- circling the eye and extending over the ear-coverts ; t>ehind the latter a tuft of extremely rich yellow feathers extends backwards ; throat bright yellow ; remainder of under-surface brownish-yellow; bill black; feet blackish-brown ; irides reddish-brown. Female similar in colouring, but smaller. Hab., Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. Gould says: "The Yellow -tufted Honey-eater is abundant in New South Wales, inhabiting at one season