The Importance of Aviculture. 667 



Aviculture is again responsible for the production, in 

 England, of the first young Touracou that has, I believe, 

 been seen in Europe. In his book on the Uganda Protecto- 

 rate, Sir Harry Johnstone briefly refers to the young of one 

 of the Central African Touracous, but I believe that no 

 specimen has ever been brought to this country. Last year 

 (1904), however, a pair of the West African Touracous 

 (Turacus macr or hynchus), belonging to Mrs. Johnstone, a well- 

 known aviculturist, nested in an aviary in Suffolk, and 

 hatched one young bird which, although it was not reared to 

 maturity, lived sufficiently long to give us an insight into the 

 first stages of the life history of these interesting birds, and 

 proved that most of what had been written on the subject 

 was mere conjecture, and inaccurate. \_Avic. Mag., N.S., 

 Vol. III. (1905), pp. 26-29, 55-63.] 



To turn now to that Neotropical group of birds, the 

 Tinamous. Not very much is known of their habits even 

 now, but some of the most important facts that are known 

 have been ascertained by a study of the birds in captivity. 



The common Eufous Tinamou (Bhynchotus rufescens) has 

 been kept and bred in this country many times, and in the 

 P.Z.S. for 1868 (p. 115), the late Mr. A. D. Bartlett wrote 

 an interesting paper on this subject. He showed that 

 the young of this species exhibited very distinct Eatite 

 characters, and that, as in the Ratitœ, the incubation was 

 undertaken by the male alone. 



M. Dulaurier has done more with the Martineta Tinamou 

 (Calopezus elegans). In the 'Bulletin of the Acclimatization 

 Society of France,' for October, 1903, he published a very 

 valuable paper on the breeding of this species in his aviaries. 

 He commenced with a single pair of these birds, but so many 

 eggs were laid that he found it necessary to give the first 

 twelve or fifteen to a domestic hen, the remainder being left 

 with the male Tinamou. In the spring of 1903 M. Dulaurier 

 kept two males with the one female, and he found that after 

 laying a clutch of sis or eight eggs for the first male, she 

 paired with the second and laid another clutch upon which 

 he commenced to sit ; and M. Dulaurier considered that he 

 would have had even better results if he had had three males 

 to the one female. He has, therefore, proved pretty con- 



