202 BREEDING CEOSSOPTILON 



the most likely places, and they brought in at different 

 times about a hundred eggs, which are of a light olive 

 dun colour. Broody hens were procured, not without 

 difficulty, and these, with clutches of eggs, were dis- 

 tributed among such of the native converts as had suitable 

 places for rearing the young birds. The heathen natives 

 could not be trusted with such things, being much more 

 rough and less reliable. In the end I got a good per- 

 centage hatched out, and fifty-three were alive at Kia- 

 ting-fu, having been carried down from Ta-tsien-lu by 

 coolies. Being so young, the journey was too severe, 

 and many were in a bad state of health from the over- 

 land journey. Losses were heavy going down the river^ 

 and I only succeeded in getting five home alive. I put 

 this heavy mortality down to the birds being too young 

 to travel. If I could have left them tiU the next year, I 

 feel confident I should have succeeded in bringing^ 

 nearly all home alive. The year before, Mgr. Biet gave 

 me an adult specimen that had been hatched and reared 

 in his aviary, and this bird stood the passage perfectly 

 well. It is, with the others I brought home, now in the 

 gardens of the Eoyal Zoological Society, Eegent's Park. 

 Another bird, a specimen of which I brought home 

 alive, is the LopJiophoims IJhuysii. This magnificent 

 species inhabits high altitudes near the snow line, and has- 

 never before been brought alive to Europe. They are 



