number produced in the previous year. The number of young- 
birds hatched, however, was greater, being eighty-two instead of 
sixty-two. But the number reared, owing to the bad weather, 
for which the summer of 1860 lias been notorious beyond all 
precedent, has been slightly less—being only forty-five instead 
of fifty. The whole of the young birds have been disposed of 
among the members of the society except the four Impeyan 
pheasants, for which there are numerous applicants as soon as 
the sex of the birds shall be ascertainable.* 
The next bird to which I will direct your attention is the 
Mandarin duck (aix (jalericulala), a native of the north of China. 
These beautiful birds are regarded by the Chinese as emblems of 
conjugal fidelity, and are usually carried about in their marriage 
processions. We have instances of attachment equal to, if not 
surpassing that of the dove, and the pair are usually seen close 
together, the male watching during the time the female sleeps, 
and the female watching while the male sleeps. They roost 
in elevated situations upon trees, high rocks, &c. The 
Chinese name for the mandarin teal is een yeong; and, with 
reference to the same conjugal quality, is applied figuratively 
to two kinds of fine black teas, which are generally mixed 
together. These are pekoe and a superior kind of souchong. 
When I first saw this bird alive in China, and gave some account 
of it in a work I published some years since, entitled, “ Wander¬ 
ings in New South Wales, Singapore, and China/' 1 found it 
impossible to procure a pair ot living birds, even at a very high 
price; and it is but little more than two years since that a 
request was made from this colony to the Governor of Hong 
* As it is important in rearing birds to ascertain with some degree of accuracy 
the number of days of incubation of birds, I have given the following table, as 
published by the Zoological Society of London, and it appears that the time of 
incubation is as constant in each species of bird as the period of gestation in each 
species of mammal. Emeu (Dvomacus Wo ven Holl(indite), fifty-six days ; American 
ostrich (rhea Americana), thirty-five days. (The eggs of the emeu and rhea were 
hatched in the Society’s incubator.) Impeyan pheasant (Lophophorus Impcyanus), 
twenty-eight days ; cheer pheasant (ccUreus Wallichi), twenty-eight days ; purple 
pheasant (galloplums Hnrsejicldii), twenty-four days ; white-crested kaleege 
(gatlaphasis albocristatun), twenty-six days ; black-backed kaleege (gallojrfiasis 
mclanotus), twenty-four days ; Californian quail (callipepla Californica), twenty- 
one days ; crowned pigeon (goura corrnxita, twenty-eight days; crested pigeon 
(ocyphaps lopkotes), fourteen days; black-necked swan (cygnets nigricollis), 
thirty-five days ; black swan (cygnus (drains), thirty-five days; coreopsis goose 
(cercopsis Nova: Hollandice), thirty-five days; Sandwich Island goose (bernicla 
Sandvicensis), thirty-one days; ashy-headed goose (Mcephaga poliocephala), 
thirty days ; muddy wildrake (casarca rutila), thirty days; summer duck (aix 
sponsa), thirty days; Mandarin duck (aix galericulaia), thirty days. 
