Foreign Doves at liberty.



123



Waterhen in the same compartment, Bartlett was inclined to think

at first that this bird had laid the egg. However, in the early part

of June another egg was laid, this time in the nest, and it agreed

with the fragments discovered earlier. The two birds took turns in

incubation and in twenty-seven days the egg hatched.


Bartlett describes the young bird as one of the prettiest he

ever saw, being covered with fine short tufts of down, and much

resembling the young of Plovers and Snipe. It remained for twenty-

one days in the nest, being regularly fed by its parents on small fish

and insects. It grew rapidly, and at the end of two months was

indistinguishable from its parents. A second young bird was hatched

later on in the same year and was also successfully reared. It is

much to be hoped that we may be able to repeat this success in the

coming summer.


[The Sun-Bittern I have, is ridiculously tame, and does not

resent being picked up ; and placed on the palm of the hand.


H. D. A.]



FOREIGN DOVES AT LIBERTY.


Bv The Marquis of Tavistock.


To anyone inclined to embark on that form of aviculture in

which an attempt is made to induce foreign birds to remain uncon¬

fined in the vicinity of their owner’s home, the dove family affords a

not unpromising field for experiment and a fair chance of success.

Many exotic doves are, in the first place, quite indifferent to cold

and some of the hardiest are reasonably well endowed with the

necessary homing instinct. Unlike finches and parrakeets, they can

generally be relied upon to arrive free from infectious disease : they

are easily and cheaply fed (I refer of course to the grain-eating

•species only) and under no circumstances are they destructive to

trees and shrubs.


Our experiments with doves at liberty have now been carried

on for a considerable number of years, and in a few cases interesting

and satisfactory results have been obtained. The number of failures

has certainly been large, but in some instances it is only fair to

.conclude that they have been due to unfavourable local conditions



