146



Miss Rosik Aederson,



rather disappointed at coming right across England only to find

a lame husband, and further the defect over his eye quite spoils

the beauty 011 that side of his face, and he cannot always turn

the perfect side towards her. The cock is really not hand¬

some enough to suit her taste, but he does not at all realize

this. He is beginning to be anxious to nest and is becoming

rather a nuisance to the other inmates of the aviary, especially

to the Black-bearded Doves who are too lazy and fat to resent

him. The cock Bronze-necked goes into a nest basket and

coos, then the hen taking no notice, he descends and starts

bowing and cooing, spreading his tail in an upright fan and

bobbing up and down, to the astonished Black-bearded Doves,

the hen Bronze-necked meanwhile seeming quite indifferent.

The Black-bearded Doves are very handsome birds, and I

have never seen any like them. Three specimens were sent to

me privately a few years ago by a gentleman living in Jamaica.

They were fairly common there though almost unknown in

England, but the terrible earthquake destroyed so much bird

life that, for anything I know to the contrary, these Doves

may be rare now in their native land. I11 shape the Black-

bearded are rather larger and heavier than a Bleeding-heart

Pigeon. They are strong looking birds, and keep much on the

floor of the aviary ; though they seem lazy by nature and do

not move about much. My third bird, who died, got very

thickened legs (almost like scaled legs in fowls), and Mr.

Newman made the suggestion to me that possibly it was caused

by the birds not having grass to walk 011, and the aviary tiled

floor being too hard. I took his advice and turned the remain¬

ing two doves into another aviary with a grass flight, and here

their legs became wonderfully improved, and further, one bird

that had moulted out a lot of white feathers (instead of maroon

as they should have been) gradually lost all this, and became its

proper colour again. The whole of the body of these doves is a

rich brown maroon becoming lighter on the breast, the top

part of the head (like a cap) being bright cobalt blue. The face

is sharply lined with white rather like a cock Californian Quail,

and under the chin is a beautiful bib of dark blue metallic

feathers from which I suppose the bird gets its name. The beak



