68 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 



has already been figured for the Ibis, to my mind most 

 indifferently. The pair of Canarian chaffinches [F. tintillon) 

 are real beauties, and very pleasant, cheerful birds ; if 

 they thrive through the winter I think that there is little 

 doubt but that they will nest." 



"/line ird, 1889. 



" I shall greatly value the eggs of courser* that you 

 are good enough to spare to me. I should say you would 

 find an old courser easier to keep alive than young ones. 

 I presume that these birds feed principally upon coleopterous 

 insects and small mollusca, and if so, would, I should 

 think, readily 'train off' upon flies, cockroaches, and 

 shreds of boiled or raw liver or other lean meat thrown 



to them upon sandy ground. F kept a courser alive 



from the end of August till November at Tangier on 

 grasshoppers, after that on the larvae of beetles ; he kept 

 the one alive from August 1851 till October 1859, when 

 he was forced to leave Tangier, and found that it had 

 died before his return thither in April i860. This bird 

 laid thirty-two eggs, and supplied many European collectors, 

 but not your present correspondent. 



" I have no doubt you are right about the male 

 houbaras helping in the rearing of their young. I sup- 

 pose that this sub-genus is not polygamous, as the great 

 bustard, to a certain extent, certainly is. I am very 



* See note on p. 203. 



