184 Capt. G. B. Perreau,


My reasons for believing Uroloncha acuticauda to be the

ancestor of the Bengalee are as follows: —


U. acuticatida breeds fairly freely in confinement, while

U. striata does not. The former is less timid as regards nesting

and is hardier than the latter.


In my opinion the chirp, song, shape, and postures of U.

acuticauda, more nearly than those of U. striata, resemble those

of Bengalese.


Two pairs of pure (as far as I know) Bengalese have thrown

back to U. actiticauda, and the tendency at present in my aviary

is for U. acuticauda to become the sole type, though I must say

that latterly a good many young have been produced of the fawn

type, but with very little white on them.


These points against U. striata are mostly negative, but,

having kept them longer, they had a better chance of showing

affinity to the Bengalee. U. acuticauda both chummed and bred

with the Bengalee, while the U. striata did not.



When starting to type the above I noticed two things

which made me pause, and I continued pausing (for other reasons

as well, quite unconnected with birds) till my return from camp

in January this year. The first was my finding young in a nest

of U. striata, nearly fledged ; I knew they were nesting in a far

corner, but they had been doing that off and on for a long time

without success, so I did not bother about them much. The

second was that my old chocolate cock seemed to be making

advances to a Striated hen. The young U. striata left the nest

before I left for camp ; they differed greatly from young of U.

acutica7tda. The Bengalee-Striated flirtation remained a flirt-

ation only, she was jilted before I left. My census on my return

showed a slight increase of U. acuticauda, and a slight decrease

for U. striata.


I think it probable that the Bengalee may have had

Striated ancestors as well. I only give my experience for what

it maybe worth. Birds, even of the same species, differ a great

deal. Some pioneer, I think Gedney, states that Bengalese are

feeble on the wing; his birds were probably bred in small cages

or their parents were, but now that aviaries are so much more



