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The Crowned Cranes at Logan.



Beaulieu, where I hope it will do well and fall in with others of its

species.


The Eagle and Marbled Owls went to nest as usual, but

their eggs were all infertile.


My Rainbow Buntings are now (Oct. 28th) in heavy moult

but perfectly well. They are very beautiful birds and easily managed

but not particularly interesting; they usually skulk in the thickest

cover the aviary affords them, where they are practically invisible,

and they never utter a sound or pay the slightest attention to any¬

thing except mealworms. They are perfectly peaceable and inoffen¬

sive, that is to say my pair is, I have no experience of any others.



THE CROWNED CRANES AT LOGAN.


By M. Portal.


The pair of Crowned Cranes at Logan, which are not pinioned,

bred again this year for the fourth time, nesting close to the

site of former nests, but again the two young birds died after a

short time. As this year there was no rain to affect them, it is

most disappointing.


The female laid two more eggs, and these have been placed

under a hen and are not yet incubated. Their prospect of growing

up is I fear remote, even if they hatch, as all food will have to be

artificial and the weather cold, besides the fact that the hen will

have some trouble to cover them after a few days.


If Mr. McDouall had a small greenhouse available I should

have been inclined to heat it slightly and let hen and young have it

to run in and out of, and wire off a portion outside. One fears

otherwise that wet w T eather and a chill will see the death of these

birds.


The food they pick up in the summer must be deficient of

what the young need, and the only solution might be to enclose the

nesting site and a couple of acres with netting and feed artificially

from the start and not trust to nature any more.



