Avieultural Notes for the past Year.



69



With a brief allusion to some of the Ducks of Georgetown,

these notes—which have already reached a greater length than

I had intended — must close. The Muscovey Duck ( Cairina

moschala), indigenous to the colony, is domesticated ; and breeds

freely with the common duck. Two other species of ducks are

often seen in a state of semi-domestication—being reared from

the. eggs of wild birds—namely, the Guiana Tree-duck or

“vicissi” ( Dendrocygna discolor)-, and the Blue-winged Teal

(Querquedula cyanoptera).



AVICULTURAL NOTES FOR THE PAST YEAR.



The past season with its cold spring and dull damp

summer has not been very favourable to successful aviculture in

outdoor exposed aviaries, and the fact that several of our members

have been so successful in rearing rare birds speaks volumes for

their skill.


For my part I have not been very successful, the number

of young birds reared in 1113^ aviaries being considerably below

the average. The following notes may however be of some slight

interest.


The Smith's Partridge Pigeons were the first to commence

nesting, but entirely unsuccessfully, as already recorded (Vol. V.

p. 292).


On April 20th the hen Many-coloured Parrakeet, which

has been with me for eight years, .com menced to sit, hatching, in

due course, two young birds, both of which however died in the

nest. The male is a new bird, imported in 1906, the original

male to the old hen having died early that year. He may not

have sufficiently settled down to feed the young properly, as the

old hen has never before failed to rear her brood. Or possibly

the failure was attributable to the cold weather.


I reared so many Quails last year that I was hopelessly

overrun with young birds at the end of the season, and I decided

not to breed any pure-bred Quails this year, but to try and

breed some hybrids. I therefore tried to cross the Harlequin

(C. delegorguei) with the Australian (C. pectoralis), and Harlequin



