On Tragopans in Captivity,



95



and consists of nearly the same sound uttered two or three

times, with an expiration and inspiration alternately. In

coloration the adults are very similar to the Manx Shearwater

being of a dull black above with whitish underparts. The young

are pale slate grey with lighter underparts and a large circular

patch of grey on the vent; they are just as pugnacious as their

parents and utter a soft peeping note not unlike that of a newly-

hatched chicken.


Sncli are my notes on the principal species met with in

these islands, although from paucity, or lack of experience, a few

important species such as the Parrot and the Quail have had to

be entirely omitted ; I have, however, brought home some living

specimens of both species, and I shall hope to have something

to say about them on a future occasion.


When seeing foreign birds in their native wilds, one

cannot help wondering that any of them can be successfully kept

in the aviaries of a northern clime, where every surrounding is so

totally at variance with those to which they have been accustomed

for generations, and, if these articles enable aviculturists to better

appreciate the needs and surroundings of their feathered

captives, they will have fulfilled their purpose.


( The end.)



TRAGOPANS IN CAPTIVITY.


By W. H. St. Ouintin, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


hast year I recorded elsewhere how my Tragopans (Cabot’s

and Temmiuck’s) had bred in my Pheasant enclosure, and how, in

each case, the eggs were placed at some height from the ground

in an old Wood Pigeon’s nest. I had three clutches of eggs laid

this year. The first was by a Cabot hen (not the same one

which bred last year). She laid her two eggs in a pigeon’s nest

about Sft. up in a spruce tree. She was watched lining the nest

with dead twigs which she broke off the neighbouring branches,

adding to the original structure considerably. These eggs were

clear, as I had no adult male of that species at the time.



