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Dr. A. G. Butler,



I really cannot see why the Crested Pigeon which breeds freely in

our parks when turned loose should not be as competent to find food

to sustain it during the winter months as our English birds, if turned

into woods well away in the country. One can hardly speak cor¬

rectly of the acclimatization of a foreign species if food has to be

provided for it during the winter months.


Of the Geotrygonince or so-called “Ground-doves” I received

a supposed pair (two hens) of Wells’ Ground-dove in 1898, one of

which was killed in 1900 by my Crested Pigeons, the second died

early in 1906 : they are quite nice birds, but the name Ground-Dove

is not applicable to them more than to any other doves. I purchased

a fine pair of that delightful bird the Bleeding Heart Pigeon in 1897,

and had I then possessed a suitable outdoor aviary I might have

succeeded in breeding it, but indoors it would neither build nor lay ;

the hen died in 1899 and the cock in 1900 to my great sorrow : they

really are ground-birds, since they spend the greater part of the day

upon the earth. In 1905 I bought a pair of Wonga-wonga pigeons

and soon had cause to regret it on account of the awful monotonous

noise which the cock kept up from morning to night; the hen died

towards the end of the same year and I got rid of the cock by

exchange.


Of that magnificently coloured but Vulturine bird the Nicobar

Pigeon I bought a pair in 1897, which I found rather a nuisance on

account of their absurd nervousness and murderous spitefuluess : in

themselves they are singularly stupid and uninteresting as pets,

spending hours sitting motionless on a branch even when out of

doors in a heavy fall of snow : they seemed quite indifferent to cold

and would spend a winter night in the open part of the aviary and

in the morning I used sometimes to see them sitting contentedly

with a little pile of snow on their backs. The female died in 1902

and the male I think in 1904.


I have kept both the Californian and the Chinese Painted

Quail; I purchased a pair of the former about 1896 or 7, and

turned them into an outdoor aviary where the hen laid many eggs

in corners, but never incubated them : these birds were so frightfully

wild that I willingly sold them again at the end of six or eight

months. I secured two pairs of Chinese Quails in 1897 and was



