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SNOWY OWLS.


Sir, — It may interest 5-ou to hear that a pair of Snow}' Owls, which

•were brought to me from Norway by a friend in 1891, have this summer

^for the first time) nested, and now have two fine young ones half grown.


Except the late Mr. E. Fountaine (Norfolk) I do not think anybodj'

has reared young of this Owl to maturity : although Mr. Meade- Waldo and

the late Lord Lilford had young ones hatched in their collections.


I have reared one young Eider Duck. There were three strong young

ones, but two succumbed to the heat one sultry da)'.


W. H. St. OuinTin.



PEKIN ROBINvS.

3iR^ — Will Dr. Butler kindl}' tell us what the twent3--four eggs and

five or six young ones were, which he alleges his Pekin Robins devoured .?((^)

My Virginians have again a nest of eggs fully exposed to depredation,

and the Pekins never take an}' notice of them.


C. D. Farrar.



THE " IDEx\L " PARROT.


Sir, — Mr. Dutton is surprised to hear of an Alexandrine being, in

any sense, the " ideal " Parrot. I have not his wide experience of Parrots,

but as far as my limited knowledge goes, every rule with regard to them

.seems to bristle with exceptions. I mean, of course, especially with

regard to their powers of intelligence as shown by their tameness and

acquisition of speech.


"Tony" was a cock bird, a very beautiful specimen of his kind, and

in all respects a perfectly unique creature. I trained him to be clean by

means of a little stand, fourteen inches high, upon which I used to place

him at intervals. He very soon learned to know why he was removed from

my shoulder or lap, and it was comical to see him nodding his head when,

the object of his removal being accomplished, he was ready to come back.

Of course I always watched him when he was on a visitor, and I knew by

his movements when he wanted to come away, especially as he never

refused to come when it was necessaiy, although stoutly declining when it

was not. But I may mention that, even before this training began, I never

once knew him misbehave when sitting on a gentleman, and only once

when on a lady.


His extreme tameness was the indirect cause of his death, which was

hrouo-ht about by his being accustomed to eat all sorts of things which

were neither natural nor wholesome. He had done so before I had liim,

and, beino- ignorant throiigh inexperience, I unfortunatelj' allowed this to

continue, and so lost a bird which I would not have parted with for a

thousand pounds. A post-mortem revealed the cause of death to be in-



((/) The tweuty-four eggs were tliose of Java Sparrows and Saffron Finches; the

young liirds were of the latter species. Mr. Farrar need not use the word ' alleges ' : the

fact was repeatedly pointed out to nie by my man, and I saw the Liuthrix enter the ne.sts,

brino- out both eggs and young and devour them : the nest-boxes were examined every

week, o that we knew exactly how many we lo.st.— A. G. B.



