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Mr. W. A Harding,



some Martinican Doves (Zenaida aurita) which had nested for

several seasons in a dove-cot fitted up for them near the roof. It

is always difficult to maintain a friendly equilibrium among a

diverse assortment of birds confined in the same aviary, and I

was about to restore peace by removing the Gulls when, last

Spring, two couples paired off.


Several nests were made and discarded, and much scream¬

ing and quarrelling went on before the two hens finally settled

down and proceeded each to lay three eggs. At first the hens

were much disturbed by the other birds constantly running

before and behind them ; some Moorhens, which had multiplied

exceedingly in the enclosure, being particularly tiresome in this

respect. A semi-circular sheet of corrugated iron placed round

the back of the nest did much to abolish this difficulty, and the

cock bird, in each case, kept continuous guard in front, spending

his days in screaming at intruders and driving them off. When,

as occasionally happened, some wily bird escaped his vigilance

and the hen joined in the chase, it was his first care to drive her

back gently to the nest and stand by until she was sufficiently

reassured to settle down again upon her eggs. The shell of these

eggs is very hard and the inner membrane extremely tough, and

fully two days elapsed between the first chipping of the shell and

the final emergence of the chick. The mother, in both cases,

was too much occupied by her first two nestlings to trouble

further about the third egg, which having been laid last took

longer to incubate. The nestlings were covered with yellow

down spotted with black, and the two which have survived are

now with difficulty distinguished from their parents.


It was in this Waders’ aviary that I once kept half-a-dozen

Penguins imported by Mr. Hamlyn. At first they refused to teed

themselves, and their tightly-closed beaks had to be forced open

whilst pieces of fish were pushed down their throats. This was a

somewhat serious operation, involving the efforts of two persons

and unpleasant for all the parties concerned ; the beaks of these

powerful birds were as sharp as razors, and one’s hands were not

infrequently cut even when protected by gloves. A bite was apt

to end in blood poisoning, due possibly to a want of freshness in

some of the fish used, and on one occasion my assistant suffered



