on the White-throated Pigeon.



Ill



for a Pigeon), it readily adapts itself to confinement, always

keeping itself in beautiful condition, is not wild, so does not


dash about and knock itself against the wires, as for example


the White-crowned Pigeon will often do, and is absolutely no

trouble to cater for, being content and thriving on a diet


composed chiefly of ordinary maize ! So what more can any


aviculturist possibly want ? For though all praise is due to

anyone who can keep a delicate little bird in good health and

condition, that would die without the hundred and one little

almost hourly attentions needed to keep it alive, yet the only

really satisfactory kind of bird which is likely to survive among

us in the good time to come, which is promised to us, when no

poor bird may be caught and kept in durance vile, is the sort

that adapts itself freely to semi-domestication, such as the

Canary, Budgerigar, Barbary-dove, etc., etc. To this catalogue

very possibly this fine bird,—the White-throated Pigeon,—might

be easily added as a notable addition. Perhaps it even might be

allowed its liberty, as it is a bird of considerable intelligence,

and I notice it is fond of spending much of its time in certain

spots, which it seems to regard as its home. But this last point

is one that is only conjecture, as the birds are too valuable and

my stock too small to allow me to experiment in this way,

much as I should like to do so. It must also be borne in mind

that such forms of Pigeons as have been domesticated, such

as the races of lima and phteeonota are naturally rock dwellers,

whereas alhigularis is a strictly arboreal species, even more so

than our familiar Wood-pigeon.


I will now narrate the doings of my birds since I first

wrote about them. It may be remembered that I described the

rearing of two young birds in 1909. The same pair of old

birds nested three times in 1910, hatching three more young

ones, all of which were reared. In 1911, the old pair were

together with the five, now grown up, young ones. One word in

passing about the sex of these young birds, of the four eldest,

three were cocks and one a hen, the youngest, which lived for

over a year, was not sexed (this is the only bird hatched here

which has died so far). During this year twelve eggs were laid



