A MEMORABLE ORNITHOLOGICAL EVENT.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—It may interest lovers of birds to be told of what a friend calls "a memorable ornithological event." I read in a well- known book on birds, that no bulbuls have probably been bred in captivity in Europe, save once in Germany. I am able to mention a second exception to this statement. Some six years ago, I brought a Syrian bulbul from Beyrout, and a short time after I purchased one of the white-eared kind. They paired last year in a large cage, but built no nest, and the Syrian bird, which is a hen, laid two eggs at the bottom of the cage, which were broken. This summer I set them free in my conservatory, and they built a nest high up in a corner formed by the ledge of the window in the roof ; but this was evidently not to their mind, for only one egg was laid in it, and the other was found broken on the ground. Two eggs seem to be the normal number laid. In a few days, they built a nest in a hanging basket containing a fern, and here two eggs were deposited, on which the hen sat constantly for fourteen days, when one young bird was hatched. If I or any one else ventured near the nest, we were greeted with shrill screams; and not only so, but savagely attacked, the hen flapping our heads with her wings, and wishing seemingly to make an assault on our eyes. I had to hold up my hands in self-defence. It was the prettiest thing possible to hear the sweet tones which both she and the male bird used when they perched upon the basket, and invited the nestling to eat the food which they had brought. The young bulbul flourished for ten days, when on entering the aviary last Saturday, I found it dead upon the floor, near the door, a long way from the nest, and the male bird sitting close by. How it came there in its unfledged state, I cannot think. Whether it fell from the nest or was turned out by its parents, I know not ; but its death was a great disappointment, as I hoped it would have turned out that rara avis, a young bulbul hatched and reared in England. The other egg, I grieve to say, was un-
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