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Mr. Maurice Amsler,



shy and took cover just like Partridges, relying for protection upon

their neutral colouring, which makes them almost impossible to see

when upon the bare ground. On more than one occasion I have

flushed them at my feet, when they have risen with a whirring noise,

almost equal to that made by a small covey of Partridges. No

artificial food whatever was provided for them, and they had to

subsist upon what seeds fell from the small birds’ feeding tables and

upon what food they could forage for themselves. Fortunately, there

were plenty of ants’ nests in the long grass, and the eggs they scraped

out formed, I think, their principal diet in their early days. They

now visit the feeding tables with their father. On September 17th I

first noticed one of the young Quail showing black on the breast, ten

days later he had acquired his white face-marks, and at the time of

writing, October 4th, he is practically in full colour. The other two

birds are hens.



THE YUCATAN JAY (Xanthura yuca.ta.nka .) :

AN AVICULTURAL FAILURE,


By Maurice Amsler, M.B., F.Z.S.


How many of us have failures each year, and how few are

virtuous enough to record them ! An account of these failures might

enable some other bird-lover to succeed where we had failed, and

this is the very reason why we remain “ mum ” for two or three

seasons; then the birds die, and are perhaps impossible to replace,

and much valuable experience remains locked up in our note-books,

and is finally forgotten. In this particular instance I claim no

credit, as the birds in question are shortly leaving me, and I feel

quite sure I shall never be able to afford another pair. They are a

pair of Yucatan Blue and Black Jays, to which I referred in a

previous note, and were on deposit at the Zoo last spring, where

many of our members must have seen them. I, amongst others,

admired and watched them, and came to the conclusion that they

were a true pair ; whereupon I persuaded their owner, Mr. Guy

Falkner, to lend them to me for the breeding season ; this he very

kindly did.



