312 The Marquess of Tavistock —


FURTHER BREEDING NOTES FOR 1932


By The Marquess op Tavistock


In previous articles I have given an account of some of the out¬

standing successes of the season and also of the principal failures and

disappointments. To the latter must be added the death, two days

after being taken from the nest, of a young Amboina King Parrakeet.

The male parent, Alisterus amboinensis huruensis , much smaller than

the hen, though similarly coloured, reached me in very bad condition

from long and close confinement, and it is probably owing to some

lingering defect in his constitution that his offspring failed to reach

maturity. Two eggs were laid by the hen—a typical amboinensis —in

a natural tree-trunk, but only one hatched and the young bird was

deformed, lacking the last joint to one wing, which resulted in its being

naturally pinioned. It stayed in the nest far beyond the normal

period and when taken out was found to be rickety. Although both

parents were assiduous in caring for it and had begun to moult, just

before we opened the nest the hen had delivered a violent attack on

her mate, scalping him badly and nearly killing him. Her conduct

was wholly unexpected as they had lived together for nearly two years

without any hint of serious trouble. I can only suppose that she had

got nervy and irritable over the strange delay on the part of her child

in leaving the nursery, and some tactless remark from the cock to the

effect that it was probably her fault precipitated an explosion ! The

young bird was fully feathered and save that it had less blue on the

mantle was as brightly coloured as the adults. A. amboinensis is

evidently one of the most modern and highly specialized of the King

Parrakeets as male, female, and young are much alike and are all

richly coloured.


Although, as usual, disappointments were frequent among the

greatest treasures, the commoner birds and established breeding pairs

acquitted themselves remarkably well. A pair of Barrabands that

reared three young last season this year brought up five. The cock was

bred by Madame Lecallier and as a youngster distinguished himself

by finding his way home across the Solent after he had been blown from

Havant to the Isle of Wight in a furious blizzard. His wife appears



