Stray Notes.



300



Mr. St. Quintiu contributes the following note to the Field of June

2nd, on some Hybrid Blackgame and Grouse, hatched in captivity:


“ Hybrids between Blackgame and Grouse occurring in the wild state

must be more common than most people might suppose, for Mr. J. G.

Millais, in his work on British Game Birds, speaks of having examined

some twenty specimens. Probably most of these were wild-bred animals.

I have just succeeded in hatching, but, alas ! not in rearing, a brood of these

hybrids in confinement. Having two tame hen Grouse but no male, I

inclosed a fairly tame Blackcock with them this spring, and presently one of

the Grouse went to the nest and laid seven eggs. I made the mistake of

removing them to a common hen when chipped, substituting three Pheas¬

ants’ eggs at the same time. Three of the Grouse’s eggs hatched ; one was

promptly crushed by the lieu selected for her supposed gentle nature, and

one of the remaining chicks lived only for a day, never really feeding

properly. The survivor, with a small brood of common Pheasants slightly

younger than itself, lived just a week, and as it fed freely upon fresh ants’

eggs and chopped egg etc., I hoped it might have been reared. However,

it was found dead one morning, and with its poor brother (or sister) has been

committed to spirit with a view to closer examination. I may here notice

that, as in the subject of Mr. Millais’s illustration killed in Inverness-shire,

my birds took after their male parent in respect of the toes, which were

quite unfeathered. The Grouse has proved an excellent mother to the

young Pheasants, and I greatly regret that, from excessive anxiety, I did not

leave her own eggs to her care. Curiously, the other hen Grouse shares in

the brooding, and the chicks are often divided between the two old birds.

I have several times seen the foster nurse brooding the three chicks, while

the bird that hatched them sits on some hurdles close above them, as if on

guard.”



I11 the same issue of the Field appears the following note which is of

great importance from an avicultural point of view, as it was supposed that

the young Weka at the Zoo, was the first hatched in captivity in Great

Britain.


Mr. Charles Langham, of Tempo Manor, co. Fermanagh writes:


“ I have kept Wekas in confinement for some years, and they have

successfully reared from twenty to thirty young ones to maturity. My

first pair I bought from the London Zoo., and placed them in a small grass

inclosure 011 the margin of a lake. They had plenty of covert and could

wade about in the water, which they were very fond of doing; they almost

immediately started to build a nest in a box provided for the purpose, and

soon laid three eggs, only one of which hatched; but this they reared

without any difficulty. I then placed them in a larger inclosure under

some beech trees, and they reared many young ones, turning over the dead

leaves and digging with their powerful bills for worms to feed their young



