214 ONLY ONE EGG LAID. [CHAP. vi. 



lophotes, which you think yon saw here breeding, and in 

 which your recollection is quite correct. But ours is not 

 the only, or perhaps the most successful, instance of the 

 fact. In the Zoological Society's Gardens at the Regent's 

 Park a pair have, as I am told by Mr. Mitchell, bred 

 this last season three different times, and, as I think, 

 they have reared young. In my own Menagerie, where 

 I have two pairs of these birds, both have made nests 

 and laid, but only one pair has reared a young one, 

 which is doing very well, and at present is quite equal 

 in size to the parents, though for some time it continued 

 very small. They soon after their arrival formed a nest 

 among the boughs of a fir-tree at one end of the inclo- 

 sure ; but as the female had one of the wings a little 

 injured, so as not to permit her flying quite well, the 

 work did not succeed, and was abandoned. As she re- 

 covered, the task was again commenced in the same 

 tree ; but, as the wired inclosure in which they were, 

 together with some small Antelopes, was required to be 

 subdivided, although the workmen were carefully kept 

 away from that end, the nest was again deserted after 

 one, if not two, eggs had been laid, and we thought it 

 was the gambolling of the Antelopes that disturbed the 

 birds. A third attempt succeeded. Two eggs were 

 laid, and one was hatched as I have told you, and has 

 never from the first looked back. The other pair did 

 not hatch." 



A second remarkable fact is the habit which some 

 captive Pigeons fall into of laying only one egg, instead 

 of their usual number, two. 



" This season (Feb. 19, 1850) only one egg has been 

 laid by the Ocyphaps, and that some days since ; so that 

 it remains to be seen whether that is or is not their 



