E. J. Boosey—Breeding Results at Keston Foreign Bird Farm, 1934 75


backs, with a faint suggestion of grey where the hood should be, a

good deal of dark blue on the lower part of the wing, with a pale bronze-

green rump, the tail shading into blue-black at the tip. In the case

of two of these cocks the wing is adorned with a fair-sized red patch

on each shoulder, this area being orange in the remaining one.


Four young Eing-necks, and several young Cockatiels were reared,

as also numerous Lovebirds of the various species. Incidentally, two

very fine broods of five and four respectively of Nyasa and Masked

Lovebirds were fledged about 14th November, their nest-boxes being

hung in the open run with only slight overhead protection from the

rain. Both pairs have young in the nest again as we write (4th January).


A pair of Swainson’s Lorikeets go on breeding steadily the whole

year round, invariably laying two eggs and hatching one ; and the

single young one remains in the nest for months. At the moment

they have a half-grown youngster.


Pairs of Barnards, Mealy Kosellas, and Eock Peplars were obtained

too late in the season for breeding, while the “ hen ” of a supposed

pair of Crimson-wings, the cock of which we have had for some time,

turned out to be a young cock, starting to show the black back and

crimson wing patches early in June.


Last October we obtained a consignment of ten very young Plum-

heads from India. They have now mostly completed a moult, though

at least a further one will be necessary before the cocks assume their

red head colouring. At present it looks distressingly as though we are

going to have seven cocks and only three hens ; though the latter

have always, for some unexplained reason, been so scarce that one

would hardly have been surprised if the whole consignment had turned

out to be cocks. It used to be considered that hens were hardly

■ever sent over owing to their duller colouring ; but that this is

not the case is proved by our experience with this consignment of

nestlings.


The breeding results with the Finches and Diamond Doves were

satisfactory, although there is nothing particularly spectacular to

record.


Zebra Finches did well, and hundreds of young ones were reared,

.a white hen bred in 1933 mated to an ordinary cock rearing nineteen


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