282 Correspondence.


can survive ; but this is not unique by any means, for the Eider-duck

thrives, if kept with care, on barley-meal and liver, and I believe will not

touch shell-fish, mussels etc., in confinement! and the two pigeons peculiar

to the Canar\' Islands, Columba bollii and C. laurivora will not, in confine-

ment touch the food that is their only supply in a wild state, but live for

years, breed and thrive on hemp, wheat etc. E. G. B. Meadk-Waldo.



POLYGAMOUS AND MONOGAMOUS BIRDS.


The following correspondence appeared in The Field of May 4th

and nth last, and is perhaps worth reproducing here especially in

connection with the subject of polyandry, dealt with by Mr. Astley on

another page.


"With the hosts of observers throughout the world and the number of

ornithological works extant, it might well have been thought that in the

case of the larger and commoner kinds of birds all that was worth knowing

about their general habits and mode of life had long since been recorded.

According, however, to an article on the mating of birds, contributed by

Dr. R. W. Shufeldt to the April number of the American Naturalist, this is

by no means the case, and we are still in ignorance as to whether several

well-known species are polygamous or monogamous. While it is well-

known, for instance, that the Ostrich and the South American Rhea are

polygamous, it is only reported that Emeus are monogamous, and no

information appears to be available under which category Cassowaries

should be classed. The same, according to Dr. Shufeldt, is the case with

the rapidly-vanishing Kiwis {Apteryx) of New Zealand. Such information

as we have regarding the South American Tinanious points to their being

monogamous; but in this case also observations with regard to breeding habits

seem to be very imperfect and unsatisfactory. All water birds, inclusive ot

Divers, Penguins, Petrels, Pelicans, Gulls, Auks, etc., seem to be exclusively

monogamous; and with the exception of the Ruff, the same apparently

holds good for the group of Waders (Limicolce) in general, although there

is some degree of doubt with regard to the Solitary, or Double Snipe,

Darwin, in the Descent of Man, including that species among the polygamists.

The Bustard, is, of course, a well-known polygamist, but whether other

members of the group have the same habit is uncertain. The Indian

Florican are reported, however, to be polygamous, and the author

considers it not unlikely that all Bustards " possess strong inclinations in

this direction, even if they are not actual polygamists." The Stone-Curlew,

or Thicknee, is on the other hand, monogamous. Although none seem to

be polyandrous, the game birds present a curious mixture of polygamous

and monogamous types, some affording very strongly marked examples of

the former practice, while others never depart from the latter. Whether,

however, the Button-Quails or Hemipodes are polygamous or not the

author could not ascertain, although it is known that the males, which have



