128 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 
mutual consent, but A was far from being a consenter to the 
loss of his mate. Two eggs were laid, one on the 6th of June 
and the other on the 7th, each of the pairs B—E and C—D 
having one. B—E were left more or less in peace with their 
egg, but A showed such a persistent desire to get possession of 
C’s egg and to interfere with his former wife’s new mate that 
he had to be removed. The “‘ Baby” accompanied its parent into 
exile, not because it showed any interest in the eggs—it always 
treated its parents, and its elders generally, with complete 
indifference—but because it had a habit of running through the 
group beating its wings, to the danger of any incubating bird which 
might chance to be in its path. The two pairs incubated their 
eges without hitch or misfortune for five weeks; but one day 
at the end of the fifth week, C wished to enter the water, and, 
either because D would not relieve her of the egg or because 
she could not bring herself to give, up possession of it for a 
time, she tried to take the egg with her, and dropping it on the 
rock, chipped it badly. The accident was the more unfortunate 
as the egg contained a chick in an advanced state of development. 
Lest this pair, having broken their own egg, should attempt to 
rob their neighbours, they also were removed from the enclosure, 
which B—E now have to themselves. The latter pair are 
still incubating their egg, which, should it be fertile and free 
from accident, is due to hatch about the beginning of August. 
BirRTHS IN THE PARK.—Among the births in the Park this 
year two of the most interesting are a litter of three Raccoons 
and a Coati-mondi. Raccoons have bred several times in the 
Park and the young have generally been reared, but it has been 
otherwise with the Coatis. Several litters have been produced 
since the first in 1916, but invariably the mother has eaten her 
young. The female Coati seems to suffer from an extreme 
restlessness when she has her young and will never leave them 
in one place for long. If they are in a sleeping-box she will carry 
them all out, and when they are out she must carry them all 
back. If the box can be moved she will drag it about or turn 
it over, and if it is fixed her efforts to move it have much the 
same effect on her babies. Usually a week of this sort of 
thing has seemed the limit that a young Coati can bear, and 
when it has died its mother has consumed it, in a spirit smacking 
more of the utilitarian perhaps than the strictly cannibal. The 
young one under notice is the sole survivor of a litter of three 
and is now well grown and active. It may be noted that the 
period of gestation is ten weeks. 1D Isls. (Ce 
