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The Marquess of Tavistock —



best for them. One of these was a pair of Barrabands which last year

reared a young Bock Peplar. This season again their eggs failed to

hatch. When the eggs were due and overdue (not before) the cock,

whenever his mate came off, would go up to the entrance hole, put his

head inside and look and listen long and anxiously, then he would go

away and do something else, but about a minute later he would hurry

back and make another careful examination in the hope that a happy

event might have taken place in the interval! But, alas ! no little

squeaks greeted his ear and only the motionless white ovals were visible

in the darkness of the interior. When the eggs were taken away he

made such a fuss and was so completely miserable that his wife took

pity on him and (most unusual for a Barraband) laid a second time.

On this occasion the Rock Peplar eggs were forthcoming but they too

proved infertile so the poor Barrabands had no reward for their

perseverance. The Rock Peplar who provided the aforesaid eggs is

a source of much tribulation both to her owner and to her husband

who greatly desires a family. Neither his entreaties and anger nor

my inventive faculties can provide the wretched creature with a nest

that appeals to her and every season she finishes up by dropping five

eggs from the perch and then incubating that part of the perch from

which the eggs have been projected !


My hybrid Princess of Wales X Crimson-wing had a young Crimson¬

wing of my own breeding as a companion. I did not in the least expect

her to nest as she is only, I believe, a year old and certainly not more

than two. Lay, however, she did.


Her first clutch proved infertile and was removed. If the Sula

Island hybrid and the Barraband took the disappointment of their

parental hopes badly it was nothing to the Princess of Wales hybrid.

He became absolutely frantic. At first he thought his wife had deserted

the eggs and drove her furiously about with torrents of bad language.to

make her return to her duties. When he realized that there were no

eggs to return to he spent the rest of the day fairly dancing with

vexation, flapping his wings, ruffling his feathers, cursing, grumbling,

and whining. At length he realized that the only thing to do was to

make another start and he spent the next three days with his head and

shoulders crammed inside the entrance of the nest, urging and beseeching



