34



The Editor and Dr. Butler,



parent exactly, though it is, if anything, slightly the larger of the

two. I am inclined to think that this is also a female.


I am sorry to add that this year I have had no further

success. The same female went to nest again near her old place,

and on June 16th had one egg. I cannot help thinking that she

had lost some others; anyhow she began to sit at once, and no

more eggs were laid.


All seemed well and she sat steadily till something disturbed

her one night, and she left her egg containing a chick almost ready

to break the shell.


[Note made October 20th .—I was wrong ! Recently the bird

has moulted, and is certainly a male. The spots on the flanks

have gone, and the lower breast, which was tinged with ochre, is

now, like the flanks, pure white. The new feathers on the shoulders

are marked wflth fine wavy striations, instead of the coarse lines,

and spots of the first year (and as in females at all ages). There

apparently the change ends; and, as the bird has not assumed the

complete plumage of the adult, it seems probable that it will not

take on the nuptial dress next spring, and that it will not breed.


But it is evident that, as regards, plumage, the young of both

sexes of 0. tetrax are, in their first year, undistinguishable from the

adult female ; and that the young males partly assume the markings

characteristic of the adult, at their first moult, when about fifteen

months old.]


THE COLLECTION OF BIRDS OWNED BY

MONSIEUR JEAN DELACOUR AT VILLERS-

BRETONNEUX.


From an article written by Chevalier Debreuil, originally pub¬

lished in the 1 Bulletin of the National Society of Acclimatization

' of France,’ and translated by the Editor and Dr. Butler.


It is on his beautiful property of Villers-Bretonneux, near

Amiens, that M. Jean Delacour has created a veritable ornithological

park.



