. Bird notes . e I mated last Springwith my two old hens, now seven years old at least. I turnedthem into separate aviaries, and both pairs went to nest in duecourse. One pair proved a failure, their two or three clutches ofeggs proving infertile. The other pair were more successful, for after one failurethree nice young ones left the nest. Two of these were hensand were quite abnormal in plumage; the other—a cock—closelyresembled its female parent. The two little hens had the wingsand tail almost entirely white, other parts like the adult female, 2 Sonic Africa)! Sf^arrows. cnly duller. They
. Bird notes . e I mated last Springwith my two old hens, now seven years old at least. I turnedthem into separate aviaries, and both pairs went to nest in duecourse. One pair proved a failure, their two or three clutches ofeggs proving infertile. The other pair were more successful, for after one failurethree nice young ones left the nest. Two of these were hensand were quite abnormal in plumage; the other—a cock—closelyresembled its female parent. The two little hens had the wingsand tail almost entirely white, other parts like the adult female, 2 Sonic Africa)! Sf^arrows. cnly duller. They were queer little objects as they flew aboutthe aviary. When about two months old the youni^ cock begant:o assume the adult plumage, and, when four months old, waspractically indistinguishable from its male parent. At this agethe two young hens still retained a large amount of white intheir wings and tail, Init it was noticeably getting darker. Laten, October another brood were hatched, but, although ♦hev. //;()/,! /).v \V Sliiirc Hciily. Cape Sparrow taking a feather to next. a|)peared to do well for two or three weeks, I do not thinkthey ever left rue nest, or if they did they must ha\e died soonafterwards, as I ne\er saw any trace of them. Possibly, sokite in the year the insect supply ran a bit short, and as no liveor artificial food, excepting bread and milk, was provided, theyoung ones were inadequately nourished. Another hrst success in these aviaries was with the Grey-headed Si)arrow (Passer s7vaiiiso)ii). After two attempts asingle voung bird was reared in a coco-nut husk. This Httle onecnlv differed from its i)arents by the absence of the white wing-bar, so noticeable a feature in the adidt birds. It was rather a Some African Sparrows. 3 shy little bird at first, but after a week or two was quite capableo! holding its own with the other occupants of tlie aviary—weavers, buntint^s, grosbeaks, etc. A less successful attempt was made by my Yellow-throa
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