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Correspondence



but if they remain on, the young themselves in a couple of months

squeeze the bands flat and injure their leg ; in the third place it is

difficult to remove such rings.


I consider it essential to band young Lovebirds with closed aluminium

Budgerigar rings when they are twelve days old. If the tagging is

done sooner the adults remove the rings.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE CHINESE BAMBOO


partridge


Since writing an account of the successful breeding of Bambusicola

thoracica, it is worth while recording the following : The hen Partridge

laid eight more eggs in the same aviary where the first brood had been

hatched, the young birds not having been removed from it. These

eggs were put under a Bantam and hatched on 8th August, and are

all doing well. Meanwhile the Partridge laid again, and brought off

her third brood of five more young ones on 19th August. Within twenty-

four hours the three young ones of the first brood, now nearly as big

as their parents, had each adopted one baby, the old cock taking a

fourth, leaving only one to be cared for by the female; the young ones

not only each brooded their special baby, but actually broke up

mealworms to feed them with. At night the whole party of ten birds

settled down closely wedged together. The only other example of

first brood birds feeding and brooding their younger brothers and

sisters of a second brood, is in the case of Moorhens, who will occasion¬

ally do so, but it is not a very common occurrence. The old pair of

Partridges have, therefore, had three broods this summer, and laid

seventeen eggs. Of these one egg of the first lot was rotten, one young

bird was killed and eaten by another bird in the same aviary before

we could remove it, three young ones of the first brood have been fully

reared, seven more are doing well under the Bantam, and I see no

reason why this last lot of five should not be reared also.


G. H. Gurney.



