Marquess of Tavistock—Farther Notes for 1931



27



The Roseate Cockatoos were another disappointment. The hen

apparently settled down in the barrel in which she reared two families

with a Common Grey cock, but at the last moment she deserted it,

and laid her egg from the perch in the aviary shelter. She then

arranged splinters of wood round the broken fragments as a sort of

funeral wreath, and proceeded to fall into moult, her white husband

soon following.


A pair of Hooded Parrakeets were provided with an artificial

termite mound. They followed their usual annoying habit of moulting

all summer and beginning to take a serious interest in the nest at the

end of September, three days before it had to be removed. At the

end of December the hen laid five eggs on the floor of the shelter

but none hatched, though two were fertile.


My old hen Sula Island King I mated with a cock Princess of Wales,

but just when they were getting friendly I had to remove him as he

was wanted for a hen of his own species. Later I put a Princess of

Wales X Crimson-wing hybrid with her, but he did not like her and

her eggs were infertile.


My breeding cock Malabar having died the previous winter, I was

reduced to using another who has the tiresome habit, at the beginning

of each breeding season, of biting off all his flight feathers until he is

unable to fly an inch. He repeated his absurd trick at the exact

moment when he was required to take up domestic duties. The hen

sat patiently on three eggs, but directly she discovered that no family

would reward her labours, she came out and fell upon her scarecrow

partner, biting him seriously in the mouth and beak. I could hardly

blame her !


I have three pairs of Lutino-bred Ringnecks which annually provide

material for hope ending in disappointment. A pair which hitherto

have never got further than hatching one chick reared two quite nice

young—-a Lutino and a Green. The Green injured itself fatally soon

after leaving the nest, and a few days later the Lutino was found

completely paralyzed in both legs. It fed well on soft food, however,

and slowly began to regain the use of its feet until there seemed good

prospects of a complete cure. Unfortunately, these did not materialize ;

one leg got quite sound but the other went back and the foot became



