Correspondence 293



ZEBRA WAXBILL x CORDON BLEU HYBRIDS


In August I saw two hybrids of this cross, which had been bred in a garden

aviary in 1934.


The breeders, Messrs. Piears nad James, of Beckenham, have given me the

details of the event. The young were hatched on 1st August, 1934, and two

young left the nest on the 18th ; they were then mouse-coloured and showed

a lot of whitish down. The parents took the young back to the nest every

night for more than a week. The aviary was planted with bushes and the

parents probably found some insects, but as food, only seed and a “ biscuit

food ” was supplied. The “ Goldbreast ” cock seemed to sit on the eggs all

day and the hen Cordon to be on duty at night. When anyone entered the

aviary when the young were in the nest the parents seemed agitated and

angry. The young showed no great change of colour till they were about six

months old.


When I saw them they were a year old : —larger birds than the father, and

about the same size as the Cordon, though not so slim in body. Looking at

them from a distance no one could have guessed their parentage ; the general

colour above is a brownish shade like that of the Zebra Waxbill, while below

they are yellow (chamois-yellow colour, not gamboge or orange) over the

belly and lower breast, while across the latter runs a definite bar of brownish

which sharply borders the yellow belly. On examination in the hand one

finds that each bird has a crimson eye-streak over the front of the eye like

that of the father, and that one has a suggestion of the Cordon Bleu’s pink

cheek-spot. No blue anywhere.


The parents had other clutches of eggs in 1934, and more in 1935, but none

had hatched.


Soon after I saw them one unfortunately died, but its skin went to the

Natural History Museum ; the other is still thriving.


This success is particularly worth record, not only because it is the first of

this cross (as far as I know) anywhere but because the young have lived a year,

so very different to what, I am afraid, is usually the case with captive-bred

birds.



E. H.



