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cages which could possibly give rise to such insinuations. A show cage is

not necessarily a cage in which a bird can be permanently kept, and I

certainly think it should be as unobtrusive as possible. I am thoroughly

in accord with the principle of showing one’s birds to the best advantage,

but this principle can be overdone.*


The Pectoral Rail shown in this class is distinctly not a cage-bird.

I have already occupied so much space that I will refrain from

commenting on the criticisms on the Parrot classes.


Henry J. Fueejames.



BARBARY DOVES, ETC.


Sir, — I have often read that the young of various foreign Doves can

be reared with very little trouble by placing the eggs under Barbary Doves

and allowing the latter to hatch them and rear the young. It is said that

they do not discover the fraud, but bring up the nestlings as though they

were their own. A popular writer on aviculture mentions a case in which

no less than seventeen young Crested Doves were brought up in one year

by Barbary Doves. Perhaps my experience of two pairs of the latter

species, which I kept for a short time in order to try them as foster-parents

for young Vinaceous Doves, may be of interest, and perhaps act as a

warning to some members who “go in for ” the ColumbidcB.


My old pair of Vinaceous Turtle-doves have reared a number of

3'ouug in their time, and it would have been far better if I had let them

bring up all their own young last year; but I was tempted to try the

above experiment, with the following unfortunate results.


A friend having two pairs of Barbary Doves to dispose of, I purchased

them, and gave each pair a separate place, in which they very soon went

to nest. One pair laid on precisely the same date as the Vinaceous

Doves, so I took their eggs away and substituted the eggs of the latter,

which were duly hatched. Everything seemed to go well with them until

they had got well fledged, when the Barbarys apparently discovered

that a trick had been played upon them, and forthwith] discontinued to

feed the youngsters, which consequently died.


The next pair of eggs laid by the hen Vinaceous Dove were given to

the other pair of Barbarys, but with precisely the same result.


I don’t know whether the Collared birds had reared young of their

own before coming into my possession, if not it is just possible that they

would have treated their own youngsters the same ; but this is highly

improbable, and as both pairs behaved in the same way, it seems probable

that they discovered that the little mites were impostors. I believe

Barbary Doves have often brought up the young of the Australian Crested

Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) and, if I remember aright, Mr. Housden told

me that he had successfully reared a very interesting hybrid between a

Cambayan Turtle-dove (71 senegalensis) and a domestic Pigeon, by placing

the egg under a Barbary Dove, and my failure to rear Vinaceous Doves by

this means is the more unaccountable, as the latter species is very closely



* Exhibitors have often been found fault with for showing their birds in too small

cages—it seems hard that they should now be complained of for showing them in too large

ones.— Ed.



