INFIRMITIES OF OLD AGE 321 



and intermittent starvation, troubles which fall to 

 the lot of most birds in a state of nature. 



Thus I knew for years an old hen Lapwing in 

 the London Zoo which died at the age of at least 

 fourteen ; but for years before her death, apart 

 from the fact that she had a stiff wing — no doubt 

 due to some accident — she was in a most unfit 

 state for survival in the wilds, since, a few weeks 

 after she had moulted, her quills regularly became 

 so worn that she would have been greatly handi- 

 capped in flight, and flight is the most important 

 survival-factor in this bird, its activity on the 

 wing being too much for the average Hawk. 



Almost up to her death, however, she laid an 

 egg or two anpually and sat on them, but these 

 never hatched, though as her mate was a Ruff, 

 the hybrid aUiance may have accounted for this ! 

 Mr. Meade-Waldo's classical pair of Eagle-Owls, 

 both of which exceeded sixty years, also bred up 

 to within a few years of their death, and the long- 

 continued fertility of the Goose is familiar to poultry 

 keepers. The Duchess of Bedford, however, re- 

 corded in " British Birds " a Collared Dove which 

 at the age of thirty failed to fertilize its young mate's 

 eggs, so there we get an approximate limit to the 

 fertiUty of this species, which, by the way, is one 

 noted for longevity, in which it far surpasses the 

 Pigeon, a larger bird and kept as a rule under 

 more natural conditions. Among aviary Pheasants, 

 however, the small Golden and Amherst species do 

 not live nearly as long as the larger Silver Pheasant, 

 21, 



