32 
by water.” The birds before laying scrape a hole in the earth, in 
which, without any lining of grass or feathers, the female deposits 
her eggs. As many as a dozen eggs have been found in the same 
nest. Numbers of these nests have been robbed of both eggs 
and young, but the young birds so taken have invariably died. 
After repeated unsuccessful attempts to rear them, by two years’ 
perseverance he at last succeeded in hatching some eggs under 
hens. As soon as he got the hens to lay, and in due time to sit, 
by replacing several of their eggs with half the number of those 
of the balamiceps, as fresh as possible from the nest, the locality of 
which was previously known, he eventually succeeded in hatch¬ 
ing several birds. These ran about the camp,* and, to the great 
discomfort of the poor hens, would persist in performing all sorts 
of uncliicken-like manoeuvres with their large beaks and extended 
wings, in a small artificial pool constantly supplied with water, 
and the little pond was supplied with live fish, upon which, and 
occasionally the intestines of animals chopped into small pieces, 
they were reared. 
The ostriches of Southern Africa would acclimatise well, and 
he valuable for their magnificent feathers, now becoming rare and 
expensive; and besides the black and white ostrich plumes, there 
are a number of birds in this and other countries that could be 
introduced, if only for their feathers as ornaments. 
Tt will be impossible to enumerate all the valuable birds that 
could be introduced with advantage; but Avhen speaking of 
pheasants I forgot to mention that the pJuisianris versicolor from 
Japan, and the P. torquatus or ring-necked from China, have 
crossed with our common pheasants, and produced hybrids of 
greater size and weight than either of the parents, and tlie 
plumage is beautiful. These were shown me by Mr. Gould during 
my recent visit to London, who shot them in Norfolk; and at 
the Aberdeen British Association, when Prince Albert visited 
the zoological section, so much interest did he take in the 
subject, that he requested Mr. Gould’s paper on the pheasants 
to be deferred until his arrival, when he listened most attentively 
to the description, and examined the birds with the keenness of 
a sportsman and the practical eye of a naturalist, and expressed 
his admiration of the beauty of plumage and increased size of 
the hybrid breed. 
Among many other valuable birds worth acclimatising, this 
* The fact of the young birds running about immediately they are hatched in 
search of food is a remarkable fact, considering the class of birds to which, judging 
y t eir anatomical structure, they are considered to be allied—the herons. 
