THE


Avicultural Magazine


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY

FOR THE STUDY OF

FOREIGN & BRITISH BIRDS

IN FREEDOM & CAPTIVITY



Third Series. —Vol. XI.— No. 8 . — All rights reserved. AUGUST, 1920.



MISCELLANIES


By Hubert D. Astley, M.A.


(Continued from p. 119.)


I have mentioned that four young Monauls were hatched in May

under a Rhode Island Red (one of which, when six weeks old, was killed

by a rat, I believe the only female in the brood), and I was very

astonished in the second week of July when the parent Monaul appeared

in her aviary with five more chicks. I did not know she was sitting

in the roosting-house amongst some bracken litter on the floor. I had

been in Italy, and my bird keeper hid the fact from me in order to

give me a surprise, in which plan he most admirably succeeded. I was

approaching the aviary with a friend, when the latter exclaimed,

“ Oh, look at the little ones ! “ What little ones ? ”—“ Why, the


little pheasants.” There was the pair of Monauls leading about five

chicks, the hen bird digging for all she was worth for worms. Last year

she incubated a second clutch of eggs, but deserted them the day before

they hatched, and fortunately the eggs were conveyed in time to a

farmyard hen, who had been broody for a fortnight or more, and duly

hatched. Sitting on her nest in the dead bracken the Monaul was

almost completely camouflaged, and she sat perfectly steady whilst

matutinal cleansings on the part of the aviary keeper were taking place.

The aviary is by no means a large one; the flight is about the size of one


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