66 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 22 3 



saw just one of the Combasous at a time in the aviary that I became suspicious 

 that something was about to happen. 



I didn't dare investigate the nest, which was placed in the wire netting, and 

 was very loosely constructed of grass and hay, with the entrance sloping down. 

 In the middle of July I again saw both of the Combasous in the aviary at the 

 same time, but only for a short visit. Then the female returned to the nest 

 again. I can't say if they took turns in hatching, but I noticed that they were 

 both in the nest at night. 



About the feeding, I have learned that both the male and the female are ardent 

 feeders as long as the young are in the nest. It always happens in this way — first 

 the female enters the nest, and directly after her the male. The male is always 

 the first to leave the nest, perhaps the direct feeding is undertaken by the female 

 alone. 



On the 3rd August, two fledglings left the nest, and now these two fledglings 

 are fed by the male only. The female has no interest at all in the young, even 

 if they are begging her for food. Now and then I have seen the young begging 

 Zebras and Cordon-bleus for food. Sometimes they succeed, but it also happens 

 that they are pecked at instead of getting something to eat. 



The male Combasou guards his young carefully, and will not tolerate their 

 being harmed by any other bird. The female is, as stated above, quite indifferent. 

 In spite of the fact that the fledglings left the nest seven days ago, they spend the 

 nights with their parents in the nest. 



This detailed account, surprising and contradictory as it seems to 

 be, cannot be dismissed very easily. I must accept the observations 

 of the adult male combassou feeding the fledged young, even though 

 I still wonder whether the female of a host species remained unob- 

 served in the nest dming incubation (K. Nielsen carefully abstained 

 from examining the nest so as to avoid frightening the birds, and he 

 says that there were many other kinds of birds in the cage). 



Commenting on this case, Prestwich (1956, p. 13) wrote that he 

 knew of no record of a similar instance in British aviaries. The 

 nearest to it was a case that Boyd (1914, p. 338) described. She had 

 one young combassou reared by cordon bleus. "The hens of the 

 respective pairs (combasous and cordon-bleus) each laid eggs in the 

 same nest, the combasou three and the cordon-bleu four. The 

 cordon-bleus alone incubated. ... of the seven eggs only three 

 hatched out, one combasou and two cordon-bleus, but the latter 

 were not fed; the young combasou, however did well, and is now 

 fending for itself." This case is more similar to that of A. Nielsen 

 than to tlie one reported by K. Nielsen. My attempts to get further 

 information from the latter individual have thus far met with no 

 success. Poulsen (1956) redescribed but did not add new data to 

 the two Nielsen cases. 



Three more instances of avicultural breeding of combassous should 

 be discussed. Tomlinson (1935, pp. 40-41) reported that in his 

 aviary a pair of combassous laid their eggs in a nesting box in which 

 an Australian shafttail {Poephila acuticauda) was incubating. One 



