Winston S. Rowe—Notes from South Devon



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Green Avadavats, of which I had two pairs, were also rather wild,

flying into the shelter immediately anyone approached them. Pintail

Nonpareils were also culprits in this respect.


A hen Bullfinch which I purchased in July, 1933, laid four clutches

of eggs in that summer. All hatched, but not one was reared. Her

companion was also a Bullfinch. She then spent the whole of the winter

(October to late February) in an aviary to herself, out by day and shut

in by night. She had complete freedom and always completely dis¬

appeared until dusk. Having sold the cock I thought she might

like her freedom, but evidently she preferred it on a fifty-fifty basis.

She was not seen again after 3rd March.


I think that this part of South Devon (Torquay) is very suitable for

aviculture. Until February of this year on no day have we had

weather which might cause distress to the fairly hardy species. Each

night my aviaries have been left open, the large windows into the

flights being entirely removed. When February and the frosts came,

the windows, and in some cases the doors, were replaced. At present

I have Redrumps, Alexandrines, a pair of Blue Crowned Conures, and

Weavers. Until recently there were Peachfaced, Masked, and Fischer’s

Lovebirds in three aviaries.


My most successful breeding of Lovebirds has been in the winter:

in only two cases have they troubled to lay in the summer, both being

fully successful, however. The nest boxes, 16 inches deep and 7 inches

square, are left hanging up all the year round.


One condition of the fledgelings has always baffled me, that is,

the state of their feathers when they leave the nest. Sometimes all the

youngsters would be fully feathered and at other times only feathered

on the head and wings. In all cases they were fed the same. Green

food ad lib. and always sufficient so that there was some to be cleared

away early in the morning. I noticed this fact particularly because

of one pair of Fischer’s which sometimes had fully fledged young while

at others they were half-naked. Last winter they were fully feathered,

this winter only half-fledged, that is, with this one pair.


Another point I noticed was, if a youngster was due to fly off

the nest in a week and I happened to take him out to see how things

were going, he would not stay in the nest on being put back and then



