25


constantly^'peckiug its head ; thus my chance of breeding this

species was, for the time, at an end.


In 1897 a genuine female was offered to me, and I gladly

purchased it, and turned it out with the male (which had then

passed two winters in the open air). My old bird had become

quite tame, but the hen was very wild and I feared she would

not be prevailed upon to breed ; however I hung up an oblong

open box under cover against the wall of the aviary, filling it

half full of bran, and laying some hay and twigs upon the

surface of the latter.


The first intimation which I received that an attempt at

breeding had been made was the discovery, early in August, of a

broken egg upon the floor. Looking from this to the box, I saw

that a Bronze-necked Dove fZetiaida auriculataj was sitting in

the nest. I naturally concluded that I was going to breed

Bronze-necks ; but was puzzled, a few days later, to see a Neck-

laced Dove incubating, whereupon I imagined that hybrids

would probably result. For nearly three weeks the four Doves

took turns upon the eggs, the Bronze-necks doing the lion's

share of the work, and then I found two neatly divided half egg-

shells on the ground and hoped that a young one had been born.

I saw no more shells after this, and had almost forgotten what

my Doves were about, when, on the morning of the 28th August,

I saw what looked like the hen Bronze-necked Dove sitting

huddled up in a corner. I picked it up, carried it indoors, and

turned it into one of my covered aviaries, where it waddled

about clumsily all day.


In the evening when I returned from business I went to

look at my Nicobar Pigeons, one of which had broken or dis-

located the last joint of one of its wings, when I perceived my

Bronze-necks in perfedl health sitting together on a branch :

then the truth was manifest,— I had kept a young Dove away

from its parents all day. Of course I promptly restored it to its

nest, when I saw a wing lifted and knew that another bird yet

remained therein.


The following day the first bird was again on the floor,

and, when I attempted to replace it in the nest-box, the second

one scuttled out and flopped helplessly along on the floor. Each

day the same folly was repeated, for it was fully a week before

the older bird could fly from the ground ; although, starting

from the nest-box, it could pass on the wing through the double

aviary from end to end, a distance of about twenty-one feet.

The second youngster never got so far as this, but on September



