Cot / espo/iclence.



37



Black - breasted Colins or “Bob-whites,” ( Colinus pectoralis).

These three are new to the collection. A fine pair of Barred

Owls ( Syrnium nebulosum ), four American Barn Owls (, Strix

flammea. perlatam ), four of the northern race of the Burrowing

Owl ( Speotyto cunicularia hypogcea ), four Blue Jays, a pair of

Golden-winged Woodpeckers and some White-fronted Doves.


The Society has for some time possessed a solitary Victoria

Crowned Pigeon, the only example of this fine group. Two more

specimens, as well as a pair of the so-called Common Crowned

Pigeon have now been acquired, bringing our stock of these

magnificent birds up to five, which we hope to increase by

breeding next year.


One of the most interesting arrivals consists of a pair of

the extremely rare and beautiful Ringed Teal (. Net Hum lorquatuni)

from South America. This is a rare species even in its own

country and is new to the Zoological Society’s collection and

probably to this country. It is something like the Brazilian Teal

but much more beautiful, the male having bright chestnut-red

scapulars, pale grey flanks, metallic green wing-coverts and a

black band passing from the top of the head down the nape and

dividing into a collar round the neck. A few males of this

species reached the Berlin Gardens some few years ago but there

were no females.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



MORE NESTING OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA PARRAKEETS.


Sir, — I have to record another failure. To-day — the 30th of August

—I have looked into a nesting-box in which another of my hen Queen

Alexandra Parrakeets had been sitting on three eggs for three weeks, only to

find one egg addled, one scratched out of the hollow in which it was laid and

quite cold, and the third squashed and half open with a young bird inside

it ready to hatch, but dead. The hen bird is a bad mother, and I suspect

her of eating her eggs, for I found some chawed shells in addition to the

three eggs. She has had two former clutches this year, and in each case

the eggs had holes eaten in them ; yet she sat well, and the same male—

which was the father of the fortnight old bird by another hen—fed her and

mated with her. HUBERT D. A STUB Y.



