288 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



Nor did the Crested hen appear to have suffered 

 from the extra demand on her system owing to the 

 production of such an unusual, not to say unnatural, 

 number of eggs, for when fourteen of these had been 

 taken from her and given to the Barbarians, the avia* 

 rist permitted her to incubate the last two and these 

 also were successfully reared by their own parents, 

 making, as I have said, no less than sixteen young 

 Crested Doves from one pair in the course of one 

 summer, and that at a time when they commanded 

 something like thirty shillings a pair in the market. 

 Since then the price of these handsome Doves has 

 fallen considerably, but it is still sufficiently high to 

 make a good breeding pair of them a by no means 

 unprofitable investment for the aviarist. 



I was not destined, however, to be as successful 

 with my Crested Doves as the amateur to whom I 

 have referred was with his, for my pair began to moult 

 soon after I had them, and then, just as they had 

 finished and were commencing to place a few sticks 

 in order in a wire basket I had hung up in the aviary 

 in the expectation that they might avail themselves 

 of it, cold weather set in and the attempt to build was 

 abandoned. 



As the Doves did not seem to be particularly affected 

 by the cold and frost, I left them where they were and 

 thought, as they were feeding well, that they would take 

 no hurt. One morning, however, I found the hen 



