12 H. Yealland — Hand-rearing of the White-capped Parrot


part of the White-capped and the probability of eggs due to hatch in

about a fortnight.


How many eggs there were we did not know, for the hen rarely

comes off from the time she settles down in the nest (and I believe

this is a long time before the first egg is laid) until the young are

some days old.


At about the time Lord Tavistock left for Scotland in early

September he told me he thought the eggs would hatch in about a

week, and, as there was little hope of the successful rearing of the

family (for in addition to the parents’ persistent failures from one

cause or another, the autumn seemed to be already upon us, and

the nights were quite chilly), he wanted me to try to hand-rear at

least one of the young.


It was difficult at the time of the expected hatching of the eggs

to tell what was going on in the nest, for I could never find the

hen off, nor could I hear any sound of young ones : it seemed,

however, certain that all was well with the hen, because the cock

spent a lot of time sitting outside the nest.


On account of the cold weather I did not like to take the cock

away, because this would mean that the hen would probably come

off for food and might stay off long enough to spoil the eggs :

moreover, as it had previously taken not less than a week for the

cock to get bored with the young ones, to the point of biting them

into small pieces, I decided that to leave him was the safer course.


A few days later I had my chance when I found the hen off,

and on looking into the log I found three eggs, two of them fertile

and apparently fairly near hatching and the third quite definitely

clear. I had no other chance of looking in for a week, and then

I found that neither of the eggs had hatched. I feared that they

contained dead young ones, for it seemed that the hatching was

long overdue.


I did not catch the hen off again, but about eight days later,

on 30th September, I noticed the cock eating grass, and this meant

that in all probability there were young, for the cock very rarely

eats grass at any other time.


The difficulty of the moment was how to get the hen off, and, as



