The Marquess of Tavistock—1934 : Things that didn't come off 253



The lutino Amazon, as usual, took a fair amount of interest in her

nest and came into breeding condition, but her mate, a fine-looking,

but wing-stiff and stupidly nervous bird, would take no notice of her.

Once more I am going to change the cock. The new bird I found

in a cage outside a dealer’s shop and bought owing to his obvious anxiety

to breed. Already he is a most ferocious brute and when mated is

likely to put even the late-lamented Koko in the shade for pugnacity.


Leadbeater’s Cockatoos had two lots of eggs, the first damaged or

addled ; the second, clear. I have changed the cock as this is their

second season of failure.


A hen Bluebonnet imported during the winter was mated to a cock

that had been kept some time in England. She did not get further

than occasionally looking at her nest and she declined her mate’s

efforts to feed her. She is an extremely timid bird.


A hen Norfolk Island I had kept in a flight-cage all winter dropped

into moult as soon as I obtained the loan of a cock. She went into the

nest occasionally and the cock was seen to feed her, but one or other

wasted most of the summer moulting.


A pair of albino Roseate Cockatoos took no serious interest in their

nest, but they are young and still rather wing-stiff from close caging.


A rather second-rate hen Barnard, bred in 1932 and paired to an

imported cock, came into breeding condition but refused to take to the

nests we offered her. I substituted a fine imported hen but the cock,

with the fidelity common in his species, was unutterably bored with her

and had to be reunited to his first love. A new cock, obtained for

the second hen, was out of condition on arrival and did not breed.


Two pairs of Brown’s failed to produce eggs. One hen spent a lot

of time in the log but could not overcome the passion for moulting

characteristic of this species in the summer months. They start to

moult in May because their ancestors did it in Australia, and when the

other birds begin to moult in July they feel it would be eccentric not

to fall in with the prevailing custom of the country and so they moult

a second time then ! The hen of the other pair has bred in former

years but last autumn, for some reason, she become a violent feather-

plucker and this season seems to consider that the abandonment of

the vice is an adequate substitute for domestic duties !



