57



Notes from the Scampston Aviaries.



of the nest. I then went for my holiday and returned on Sept.

14th. when my man informed me that the hen had laid a clutch

of four eggs during the last few days of August, started to sit on

the 28th, and hatched out on Sept. 10th. When I looked in the

nest I found one young bird three or four days old, and another

dead on the grass close by. The following morning, as I expected,

the last of the four was also dead and flattened out by the hen’s

kind attempts at resuscitation. I have no doubt that nesting

operations would have commenced again, but I caught up both

birds and have since parted with them.


My result was, therefore, one young Bulbul reared from

fifteen eggs, of which eleven hatched out. The usual clutch

appears to be four, and the incubation periods were fourteen days

for the first and last nests and ten days for the second and third.

I believe that if I had supplied live ants’ eggs and more meal¬

worms, instead of a diet consisting almost entirely of gentles, I

should have been more successful. Anyhow, I have verified

Mr. Teschemaker’s statement that our whiskered friend is a

persevering individual.



NOTES FROM THE SCAMPSTON AVIARIES.


By W. H. St. Ouintin, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


I send a few notes to accompany some excellent photo¬

graphs which my friend Mr. F. Barber-Starkey has taken of a few

of my birds, and I hope they may be of some interest to your

readers.


The Tittle Bustard.


Though none of the Bustard family are adapted to aviary

life, and are apt to become dull, lethargic, and, I suspect, dys¬

peptic, unless they have plenty of room for exercise and range

for natural food, the Tittle Bustard being so much smaller than

the other species which have been tried in confinement, is less

exacting, and can easily be accommodated anywhere on a light

soil, where a dry sunny run can be found, with shelter from wind,

and a shed with a floor of sand, or peatmoss, for cold nights and

bad weather.


Except where much persecuted, I believe all Bustards



