7316 Birds. 



Ostriches Breeding in Italy. — The most remarkable family in the world are now 

 living at San Donate, near Florence, where Prince Demidoff has made admirable 

 arrangements for entertaining them hospitably. A part of his magnificent estate has 

 been fitted up exclusively for them. From far and near natives and foreigners come 

 to visit them in the division of the Etablissement Zoologique appropriated to them. 

 Mons. Des Murs is so much occupied with them that he has scarcely time to pay 

 proper attention to two other " Strang birds,'' the white camels, belonging to the 

 Prince. Up to the present time the flow of visitors remains undiminished ; all are 

 desirous of paying their respects to the family of Italian ostriches. When the 

 Parisian Acclimatisation Society succeeded in inducing a pair of ostriches to rear 

 their young in the North of Africa, they celebrated the event with festivities ; and 

 Marshal Vaillant deemed this triumph of science of sufficient importance to warrant 

 his forwarding minute details to the home government. The idea of introducing 

 ostriches into Europe had not then been dreamt of When came the authentic report 

 that two of these gijrantic birds had crept out of their shells on the banks of the Arno, 

 the above-named Society presented their gold medal to the Etablissement Zoologique 

 of San Donato, which Prince Demidoff liberally made over to the deserving Director. 

 During the whole time of laying and hatching the long-legged parents conducted 

 themselves in such a savage and hostile manner that uo one ventured near iheir nest. 

 A year, wisely and judiciously made use of, has rendered them so familiar and tame 

 that, during the crisis which is just now passed, they conducted themselves with pro- 

 priety, one may almost say reasonably. It was possible to approach the nest with the 

 same serenity as one feels in going to the nest of a house swallow. With this 

 fact before us the doubt about domesticating the ostrich falls to the ground ; the giant 

 birds belong no more solely to the menagerie ; they have become European. The 

 female began to lay on the 11 th of May : with remarkable regularity she laid an egg 

 on each alternate day. When three were laid she began to sit, during which time 

 the number of eggs increased to thirteen. Sitting did not seem to suit the taste of 

 the mother ; she held out but a very short time. Upon her leaving the ejrgs the 

 slumpy-beaked father took her place ; he has, during the whole period of incubation, 

 shown much greater zeal than the mother, who, as a rule, sat only five out of the 

 iwenty-four hours daily. The first chick appeared on the 23rd of June (the sex of 

 the birds is undistinguishable until they come to maturity). Shortly after four more 

 feathered Florentines appeared, when the old father lost all patience, and left the 

 other eight eggs (each of 3 fbs. weight) to their fate. — C. B., Wiesbaden; in 

 the ' Field: 



Capture of the Rednecked Phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus) in Norfolk. — A bird 

 of the year of this pretty and elegant little species was shot on Thursdiiy, the 28th of 

 November, 1860, in Laken-heath Fen, Norfolk, from which place it was brought to 

 Ely market, thence to Cambridge, by a dealer in game, of whom it was purchased by 

 its fortunate possessor, J. Hamilton, Esq., of Trinity College, Cambridge, to which 

 gentleman I am indebted for the sight of it, and the courtesy of allowing me to send 

 this for insertion in the ' Zoologist.' This bird can be considered no other than of 

 rare occurrence in the British Isles. In a letter to me a short time since, from J. H. 

 Dunn, the able and well-known naturalist of the Orkneys, speaking of the rednecked 

 phalarope, he says, " I much regret to say the species is now no more to be found 

 in these (Orkney) Islands." This intelligence I learn with much regret as an orni- 

 thologist, and doubt not it will be so with all British naturalists who chance to peruse 



