202



Correspondence.



NOTE ON THE COCK OP THE ROCK.


[The following note, which may interest readers of the Magazine, is

extracted from a letter sent to me by Mr. W. K. Pomeroy, F.Z.S., a generous

donor of valuable birds and beasts to the Zoological Gardens.—R. I. POCOCK.]


“ Camp Rio Recio, Colombia.


“ ... I am now camped on a ridge looking over the Rio Recio, a


river which comes down from the snowy mountain, Tolima, about twenty miles

away. The view is simply magnificent, forest-clad mountains and meadows

with the snowy range in the background. In the precipitous forest by the river

is the home of the Cock of the Rock. It seems rather strange that they should

be found here in a temperate climate at an altitude of 6,500 feet, for although in

the day the weather is like June at home, at night it is much colder.


“ I was surprised at finding them so common. They have a habit, which

will be fatal to them as soon as the plume-hunters discover their haunts, of

assembling every afternoon in a particular part of the forest to have a grand

singing match. It is a wonderful sight to see them all collected together like a

lot of brilliant vermilion flowers. They build in the precipitous rocks by the

river, and as the forest down to the river’s brink is as steep as the side of a house

and absolutely impenetrable unless by cutting a path through the undergrowth,

it is not easy to find the nests, even if one could rear the young ones. I have

seen one empty nest near a bridge, and am employing a man to look for the nests

as well as those of the Colombian Trogon, which builds in holes in trees, and

would be an even more difficult job than the Cocks of the Rock.


The assembling places of the Cocks of the Rock are called Gcillineros cle los

Gallos de Monte, the fowl-yards of the Cocks of the Forest. Humboldt mentions

these birds as being sold in cages by the Indians at the cataract of the Orinoco.

However I am afraid my chance of getting living specimens is small, the people

here, unlike my friends on the Rio Cesar, having no idea of catching or taming

anything.”



SIR, — Mr. P. F. M. Galloway’s note on an early brood of Partridges at

Silchester Manor Farm is of interest, but he does not say if lie saw them, or how

many, or date first seen ?


He states “a fortnight ago,” and assuming Mr. Galloway wrote on

February 24th, that makes the birds hatch on February 10th, and the hen bird

must have begun to sit by January 20th, and to have begun laying by January 1st

at latest.


Perhaps Mr. Galloway would kindly give us some details.



M. Portal.



