The Marquess of Tavistock—1934 : Things that did come off 255


poor fish ! Consequently, when assailed by physical infirmity, she

makes a gloomy but not too successful effort to appear as though

nothing were wrong with her, much as strong-minded ladies of the human

race are apt to do when compelled to submit, as invalids, to the un¬

welcome ministrations of despised relatives ! Whether as a protest or

not I do not know, but her second egg she never laid at all, gradually

re-absorbing it in the astonishing manner of which birds are sometimes

capable. Some weeks later she produced a clutch of two eggs during

warmer weather, but the Plumhead had begun to moult and the eggs

were infertile.


The greatest disappointment was with the White-capped Parrots.

The hen laid four eggs in a grandfather-clock box early in May and

as the cock murdered his offspring last year, we removed him to an

adjoining aviary when the young birds were due to appear. Two

eggs hatched and the young lived about a month, when they died within

a few days of each other. As their crops were full, the hen probably

failed to brood them sufficiently and they got a sudden chill.


The pair are usually fearless and spiteful but the sight of a horse and

cart, even at a distance, terrifies them to an extraordinary degree.


Two other disappointing failures remain to be recorded. I had

obtained a new cock Queen of Bavaria Conure as my former one was

always infertile. This year the hen laid three eggs and hatched two

young which were killed, I think by the cock, at a fortnight and a

month old respectively.


A new pair of Layards, to my great surprise, went to nest two

months after arrival, though the hen was pinioned. Three young

were hatched but they died for no apparent reason when a few

weeks old.



1934: THE THINGS THAT DID COME OFF


By The Marquess of Tavistock

Although the cold nights of late spring upset many of the early

breeding birds and the excessive heat and drought of summer

discouraged second nests, 1934 has been a fair average season for those

species not rare enough to invite the special attentions of “ X ”.



