on the successful Nesting of Frasei's Touracou. 89


large beak, almost bare head, and perfectly developed wing- and

tail-feathers.


Up to now I had fed the old birds on cut-up banana,,

soaked biscuit squeezed dry, sweet water-grapes and mealworms,

any caterpillars I could get, and some silkworms which were

much appreciated.


I now added bread and milk (not sloppy) to the diet, and

was interested and pleased to find they took readily to it ; it

helped much in the rearing of the youngster, and I have not

discontinued it since, as they seem so fond of it.


The baby grew very slowly ; and at one time I thought I

should never rear him. My coachman — a great admirer of the

Touracou family — here came to the rescue, and fed the baby once

or twice in the day with bread and milk, banana, or grapes. He

soon began to improve and grow, and the parents, seeing that he

was developing into quite a nice child, took to him again and fed

him so industriously, that all outside help was discontinued.

Whether this neglect was caused by the birds thinking of another

nest, I cannot say, but on August 30th, when the young bird was

about nine weeks old, the hen laid two more eggs, which how-

ever proved unfertile.


And now the 3'oungster began to grow rapidly and to

improve in every way; he started a funny little crest at the top of

his head, just a few hairs with a slight curl. The green plumage

could now be seen shimmering on his neck and back, and the

flight-feathers certainly became bluer, although not until October

24th did his first red feather appear in the wing.


He always roosted next his mother when she was sitting

on the eggs, and indeed spent much of the daytime there too.

When about ten weeks old he began to feed himself, picking up

fallen scraps from the floor, and used to regularly bathe in the

wide shallow pan, sometimes with his parents sometimes with-

out, and it was a pretty sight to see all three birds splashing

and washing together vigorousiy.


Now, as I write, he has almost assumed the full plumage ;

the white eyebrow mark is clearly defined, and he is only dis-

tinguished from the old birds, by being rather smaller in size and

duller in plumage. May I add a hope that as some Touracous



