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water, never doing so until they are fully fledged, and 

 these still have a good deal of down on them, though 

 the back, the region round the eyes, and the breast, 

 are quite free of it. I believe it is round the eyes 

 where the feathers first commence to shew. 



The eggs were coloured like those of an ordinary 

 domestic fowl. 



The mother seems in a very bad way at present : 

 she looks ill, is extremely thin, and has quite forsaken 

 her young ones, which are now being looked after 

 only by the father, who feeds them after he has had 

 his own meal, which generally consists of three to five 

 herrings swallowed whole in rapid succession. 



The two young birds wandered from their nest 

 some days ago and had to be brought back ; they are 

 not only very strong but extremely vicious, so that 

 the keeper can never go very near them. 



[The hen appears to have recovered, for she has 

 completely severed her connection with her family, 

 and has become attached to another male member of 

 the group in the pond. — Ed.]. 



Another interesting breeding event has taken 

 place lately in the Gull aviary, a cross between two 

 species of the Porphyrio or Purple Moorhen, the 

 Indian P. {P. poliocephalus) and the Madagascar P. (/*. 

 madagascariensis). The keeper had to rear the young 

 one, as the parents would have nothing to do with it. 

 The Porphyrio forms a most interesting genus. The 

 name is derived from a Greek word, Tropcpvpa = purple. 

 It is mentioned by classical writers, and it is the P. 

 caeruleus, one of the larger species, which is referred 

 to by the ancients. 



The most interesting form is of course the 



