THE



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BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICU LTURAL SOCIETY.



VOL. VII. — NO. 11 . All rights reserved. SEPTEMBER, 1901 .


SUCCESSFUL BREEDING OF THE PAGODA MYNAH.


By the Rev. C. D. Farrar.


Experiences are generally very like cheroots ; they usually

begin badly, taste perfect half-way through, and at the butt-end

are things to be thrown away and never picked up again. My

experience, however, this time is a distinct exception, for it was

happy in the beginning, middle, and end.


It generally takes me a couple of seasons to get a

satisfactory pair ; and in the case of the Pagodas there was the

usual wait. I first of all got hold of a good cock, and then I

began to look about for a mate. This proved no easy task. I

wrote to that refuge of the destitute, the late Mr. Abrahams, and

he sent me what he said was a ‘ certain ’ hen. I was not so sure;

but I did not like to contradict so old a fancier. Time, however,

proved that I was right and that he was wrong ; for the so-called

hen was a cock and soon showed its sex by battles royal with his

fellow prisoner. In these combats one of the contending parties

was slain, and, as it was winter, I did not bother any more for the

time. This spring, after Easter, I popped up to London for the

inside of a week ; and, of course, visited all the bird shops. At

Mr. Hamlyn’s I found, on my second visit, a pair of Pagoda

Mynahs just come in off the boat; and, as they looked all right,

I bought them ; but let them stop with my other purchases until

the week-end, when I transferred the lot to Yorkshire.


They appeared to feel the cold a bit at first, but in a week

or two seemed to get accustomed to constant changes of

temperature. I kept them in a bird room until spring was over,

and then I put them out into what I call a beautiful outdoor

aviary; but what my family call ‘ the Stores.’ Here they soon

settled down in company with a pair of Red-headed Indian

Buntings and a pair of Red-vented Bulbuls. I rigged up a box

near the roof, in the same place as the Malabar Mynahs nested



