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Monsieur Jean Delacourt,



In June, two months after their arrival, I found on some

straw in the nesting hox beneath the shelter, two round white eggs

the size of those of a golden pheasant. Male and female incubated

them alternately, and in 18 days two young were hatched. They

were covered with black down. The parents took great care of

them, but on the eighth day I found them dead upon the ground.

I fancy it was the father who had done the deed, with a desire to

start nesting operations again, as has happened before now amongst

my birds, such as “ Acridotheres” and species of Garrulax.


Three days afterwards two new eggs were laid in the same

nest, which was always kept beautifully clean. The young were

hatched in the month of July. After a few days, one was found

dead on the ground. I then removed the male bird from the aviary,

but his mate at once abandoned the remaining young one, which

died. The parents showed great distress at being separated, and

evinced a thousand signs of pleasure when they were reunited. It

was just then that war was declared, and I left Villers-Bretonneux

on the 1st August (1914). I remained without news of my birds

until the end of September, only knowing that the Germans had

arrived at my home on the 30th of August, and had been driven

out on the 12th of September, without having done great damage

to my aviaries. (They had, however, killed a white Rhea, some

rare waxbills, some sunbirds, etc.)


In the month of October, my Mother, who occupied herself

actively in my absence with my birds, wrote to me that the touracos

had again laid in the month of August, and the young ones had been

born during the Germans’ invasion ! One was dead, but the other

was then more than a month old. The parents had taken good

care of it, the male bird having done it no harm. The nestling

lived until November, but it was rickety, with malformed feet. It

died. The parents were then placed in the heated compartment

until the following May.


The following are my Mother’s notes on the touracos during

1915 :—


In the month of June, the female laid two eggs in the same

nest as in the preceding year, and two young ones were hatched.

They were thrown out and found dead on the ground after a few



