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Miss R. Alderson,



The supposed pair of Rufous Doves, by a mistake on the

journey, got right down into Warwickshire, and though sent off

on Frida}' did not reach me until Sunday morning. They had no

food nor water in their hamper, but they seemed none the worse

for their long journey. Their value is 25/- to 30/- per pair.


Just about this time I had an offer of an odd dove from

Brazil for 5/-. It was said to be the size and shape of a Bleeding-

heart. At the time I declined it, but often (unfortunately for my

purse) this fact of declining does not end the matter, and after I

have refused a bird I generally only think the more about it. So

it ended that I committed yet another weak extravagance, and

made an exchange by which this little odd dove became mine.


I found it rather smaller than the Green cock, but in other

respects exactly the same, and I believe by a strange chance I

have really (by a mistake) got a true pair of a rare dove. For a

long time the new comer could not fly. Though otherwise strong

and healthy, I have never had a dove with its wings in such a

sore state, they were one long wound from end to end of each

shoulder.


I11 .1903 I put these three birds together in an aviary with

others. Two separate nests were started at the same time, which

at least showed I had one cock and two hens, but though they laid

fertile eggs I never reared any young ones, nor did I succeed

when previously the supposed Rufous had nested by them¬

selves.


I11 November, 1903, I purchased a true pair of Rufous

Doves—they were both alike, and the same as the hen bird I had

got the year before. This pair I kept through the winter in

another aviary, and in March they began to nest. But the eggs

got broken, and the nests were failures. I then put my first hen

in the same house, and the cock of the true pair quickly turned

to her, forsaking his own mate, and only three or four days later

the pair were nesting and sitting. The three birds agreed, but

I thought it better to remove the odd hen into another aviary.

Here she formed a great friendship with a Violet Dove that could

not fly. It is perhaps a curious fact worth mentioning that

after it became friends with the Violet Dove this Rufous always



