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THE


Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.


Third Series.— Yol. VIII.—No. 3.— All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1917.


NOTES ON MY BIRDS AT VILLERS-

BRETONNEUX IN 1916.


By Monsieur Jean Delacour.


[Written for the ‘ Avicultural Magazine,’ and translated from the


French.]


Although my departure for the Army dated from August,

1914, I was able that year to see something of my birds; a con¬

valescence, some leave, and, above all, the chance that brought me

near home during the summer, gave me the opportunity of paying

fairly frequent visits, and to obtain fleeting glimpses of them.


I came to the conclusion that the close proximity of the

battles had no bad effect upon my birds, except that a much greater

number of eggs were unfertile, a fact which is no doubt annoying,

but not important on the whole. Considering their nearness to the

“front ” during more than two years, the essential point was not so

much the increase of their numbers as the decrease. The coming

and going of aviators, their fights, the appalling bombardment in

the near neighbourhood seemed to trouble the birds very little and to

cause no damage amongst them.


The big birds continue to prosper.


Up till now an Ostrich has laid four eggs, whilst her mate has

become more and more wicked, and has several times attacked his

keeper. Neither have they suffered from the snow in which they

walked about for a fortnight at the end of the winter, only going into

their unheated shed for the night.



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