80



Marquess of Tavistock—Further Notes for 1931



knowledge of the country was greater than his own, took him for a

fly round and got separated from him and he failed to find his way

home. A second pair of Crimson-wings had very rickety young,

which eventually died.


A hen King, paired to a cock that had been kept too long in close

confinement to be fertile, laid and incubated three clutches of eggs, and

then fell a victim to catarrhal fever. The cock also died of pneumonia.

Another pair of Kings that had previously failed to produce fertile

eggs reared one fine strong young one, now a trained liberty bird with

its father. As it has already got a red beak it is presumably a male.

The hen laid again and her eggs were fertile, but alarmed at the fate

of the other I did not allow her to risk her health by too prolonged

family duties.


Both my Long-tailed Parrakeets have been lost. One died in

April. I had reduced the heating of the aviary shelter and it did not

occur to my aviary attendant to increase it again when a very cold

spell set in.


The other cock paired with a Malabar Parrakeet and fed her but

he died of pneumonia in early June. I fear, therefore, that I must

return to my original opinion that this handsome species is unsuited

to aviculture in temperate climates and is not worth importing.


A pair of Pennants, usually parents of exceptionally fine and fertile

young, only produced rickety ones which did not long survive.


A pair of Browns lost their young when a few days old although

the cock has bred good stock in previous seasons.


Yellow-rumps did fairly well, rearing five young, but for the first

time had no second nest.


Rosellas had extremely rickety young, but the hen is a poor specimen

and has only once reared a good youngster.


Among three pairs of Barrabands, one hen had gone on strike for

about nine years because the nest I gave her did not appeal to her

imagination. She came into breeding condition regularly, but would

not lay. This year I decorated her home with bark inside and out,

which so appealed to her aesthetic sense that she laid again and reared

three fine youngsters. One unfortunately escaped when I was entering

the aviary, but after staying about for a day flew clean away and was



