39§



Dr. A. G. Butler,



Naturally I cared very much, and shortly afterwards Mr.

Bonstow brought the birds to my house, and I turned them into

one of my bird-room aviaries.


At first the male Tambourine Dove neglected his wife ;

but ardently courted the Emerald Dove, pairing with her though

without result ; I therefore removed her to another aviary.

Shortly afterwards the male bird made overtures to his own hen,

bitt she invariably scurried away at his approach ; nevertheless

she dropped several cream-coloured eggs from a branch, of

course smashing them.


I now hung up a sponge-basket near the ceiling, partly

filled it up with one of Mr. Abrahams’ plaited Doves’ nests, and

supplied twigs and hay, with which the Tambourine Doves

formed a little natural nest on the top of the other. Unfortunately

the slope of the basket and the fact that the doves had nearly

filled the remaining space, made it possible for the eggs to be

knocked out on to the floor and smashed.


I next substituted a little upright wicker basket (the lid

of which I had replaced by wire hooks to enable me to suspend

it) removing the natural nest to it. The doves took readily to

the new receptacle, two eggs were laid, and the birds took turns

to sit for twenty-six days, but without result.


It was while this fruitless incubation was proceeding that

I first saw the hen on the floor of the aviary, breaking up and

swallowing a cockroach. When she had finished this strange

meal, I went and got her a mealworm, which she hurried to

seize, with the same eagerness that a purely insectivorous bird

would show.


Shortly afterwards these doves went to nest again, sitting

steadily for seventeen days, but again without hatching ; and,

during the incubation, the hen devoured mealworms whenever I

threw them to her; and doubtless such small cockroaches as

strayed into the aviary, although I did not catch her in the act.


Mr. Seth-Smitli having told me that, in his opinion, I

should do no good in breeding doves, until I built an aviary in

the garden, enclosing growing trees ; I set a carpenter to work



