160



Dr. Graham Renshaw,



Writing in The Field, a fancier recorded the following :—

“ Soon after the arrival of this species ( Gallophasis elliotii) in

England, I purchased a pair, and another pair on the continent. I

found them very hardy, and decidedly good breeders, but I was not

prepared for the increasing number of eggs they now yearly lay, at

first they laid but few. In 1888, out of those I bred I kept one hen,

mating her with a cock also bred in this country; last year, that is

before she was one year old, she commenced laying ; the first setting,

consisting of nine eggs, produced nine birds; the second of twelve

eggs was not as good, total twenty-one. This year she laid about

the middle of March as usual, and the first nine eggs produced eight

birds, and one dead in the shell; the second twelve eggs produced

only two, the rest were bad. I attribute it partly to the hen ; and

the third sitting has produced eight out of eight eggs, good strong

birds, so she has laid twenty-nine eggs this year. This speaks well

for this beautiful bird, and our best thanks are due to Mr. W.

Jamrach, who first imported them.”— The Field, June, 1890.



RARE BIRDS IN CONTINENTAL ZOOS.


By Graham Renshaw M.D., F.R.S.E.


The great zoological collections of the Continent, though

resembling our own in many features, often contain special exhibits

of surpassing interest. The following species have come under the

notice of the writer during the past fourteen years. A number of

them have been exhibited in the Regent’s Park collection, others do

not seem to have appeared there, at any rate recently.


1. Paradisect minor (Lesser Bird of Paradise). Apparently

the only Paradise Bird which occurs at all in collections abroad, and

even then the individuals are few and far between. One which the

writer saw at Amsterdam in 1900 was figured in the Avicultural

Magazine for March, 1914 : this or a second example being men¬

tioned in the letterpress accompanying the illustration. Some years

ago there was a very good specimen in the Hamburg Zoological

Garden, and another at Berlin. The writer saw a Paradise Bird,



