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on the Breeding of Hey's Rock-Partridge.


fourteenth day I found the black bantam and her family walking

gaily along the high thatched ridge of the aviary roof. So I cut

her wing.


After a while the young birds were trained off on to seeds ;

they liked spray millet better than any other kind. It turned out

that they were three cocks and one hen. All grew up until you

could scarcely tell them from the old ones. Unfortunately the

little hen died ; I do not know why. The three young cocks are

now (June 18, 1905) flourishing, and quite indistinguishable from

the old cock. I am very sorry that I have no hen alive; but all

Captain Flower’s kind efforts to get me some more have been

unsuccessful. I had hoped that this summer they would have

reared their own young in the garden, in a sunny enclosure

with dry banks, a pool, apple trees, flowering shrubs, coarse

grasses and water plants, where last year the Californian Quails

hatched their young.


These partridges have a very daintily pretty way of walk¬

ing. They are also extremely light fliers, going straight up every

evening to roost on a beam immediately above their heads in the

aviary roof. They also perch a good deal in the branches of a

dead Austrian pine.


They are great grass eaters, picking out the heart of the

grass most persistently. Their plot, re-turfed in the autumn with

fine new turf from the down, soon became brown and dead, while

that of the Spotted Sandgrouse next door has remained green

and flourishing. They are also fond of chickweed, dandelion,

lettuce and fruit.


These birds, coming from a sunlit country, welcome every

ray of sunshine. They get the first sun at dawn, and it is full on

the aviary until 12 o’clock. Then as it moves behind the elm

trees the partridges follow each little checkered patch that finds

its way through the branches, squatting in each in turn.


When startled they raise their crests. They are also able

to move independently the white ear coverts.


They are cautious and inquisitive. Any new object placed

in their aviary—a stone, a brick, or even their green food if put

in an unaccustomed place, is carefully scrutinized. It is pretty

to see them then, creeping cautious!}' nearer and nearer, walking



