J. Delacour—Breeding Results at Cleres in 1922



191



Number Young Young

of eggs, hatched, reared.



Talpacoti Dove



4



2



0



Bar-shouldered Dove



6



6



4



Senegal Palm Dove (at liberty)



%



7



many



Australian Crested Pigeon (at liberty)



7



7



2



Green Budgerigars.



7



7



40



Blue Budgerigars ....



7



7



14



Pennant’s Parrakeet



7



5



0



Gouldian Finch ....



8



3



0



Zebra Finch .....



7



7



16



A few other small birds have bred in



the aviaries



, but



as I did



know how many there were before, I cannot give the number reared.

Most of the small birds, Doves and Parrakeets, which usually breed

freely here, have not even gone to nest, as a result, I think, of the

unusually cold summer. A Queen Parrakeet sat for a month in her

“ grandmother’s clock nest box ” but never laid one egg. Many

young Ducks and Pheasants have been lost, because many of my

bantam hens refused to sit; this is another very strange fact which

occurred to many aviculturists last year ; I was then obliged to put

the eggs under big hens (Wyandottes, Sussex, or Rhode Islands), which

trod on and killed the young ones; some even murdered them

deliberately; such has been the case with broods of Temminck’s

Tragopans, Siamese Firebacks, Carolina and Mandarin Ducks !


As is shown in the above list, I only bred a few species of Waterfowl,

though I possess a fairly large and complete collection. This is due to

the fact that having lost last year most of my breeding Ducks (eaten

by an otter which had got into the park and killed over fifty) I had to

buy new birds, most of them bred in 1921 ; and one knows that most

Waterfowl do not breed before their second or even third year, and

become more prolific as they become older. Also I always lose eggs

laid in the park that I cannot find ; they are destroyed by crows and

vermin. I hope for better results in 1923, as I have been able to

complete my collection with rarer species such as Ringed, Cinnamon,

and Brazilian Teal, Bahamas, White Eyes, Crested Pochards, Sparsa

Ducks, etc. I had bad luck with the Black-necked Swans : the female



