Tambourine Doves, &c. 297


looking them up in the catalogue I found that the price asked

was ^50! However I wrote to the exhibitor and eventually-

bought them at a very reasonable figure.


When showing off the drake lowers his head and then

throws it up, at the same time elevating the feathers on the top

of his head so that they appear almost like a crest, and muttering

his note, a monotonous grunt, which he keeps up for hours on

end, occasionally varying it with a double grunt!


The duck is a very quiet bird, and in my pair much shyer

than the drake ; the latter is just going into eclipse as I write and

was much later than most drakes in assuming his full plumage

last winter, as it was not complete till the end of December,

though I have often known Shovellers and Garganey later even

than this.


I hope next year to be able to report on their breeding

habits as I shall have them on a stream in an enclosure by them-

selves ; this season my pond is too overstocked with ducks — and

rats, to expect any results.


I read with interest that an immature drake was caught

last year in England which I think must have been an escaped

one. I believe I am right in saying that the Duke of Bedford

has, or had. a large stock of these lovely birds, so possibly this

specimen was bred at Woburn.


I may mention that the speculum in this species is nearly

entirely black with very little green.



TAMBOURINE DOVES, &c.

By A. G. ButlKR, Ph. D.


I have not heard the opinion of bird-breeders generally

respecting breeding-results this year ; but I know that, as regards

my birds there is little to record so far: — my cock Gouldian

Finch broke his wing in his violent efforts to prevent me from

catching him out of his cage, so that (as he died the next day)

my prospect of continuing to breed that species was quashed at

the beginning of the season. My Diamond-doves also were

disinclined for greater freedom and the hen temporarily lamed

one wing in her efforts to avoid the net ; she recovered in a week



