20 Captain Reginald Waud—Rearing Chukors and Others


and being careful to move it every day to let them have fresh ground.

They quickly grew and were able to leave the Silky, and now they are

all full winged and perfectly tame and always go about with the little

Bantam, which turned out to be a hen. I regret to say I did lose two,

but not until they were full grown and that was by a dog killing them !


It is most amusing to see the three Chukors always with the Bantam,

and if she leaves them and goes off on her own they get terribly fussy

and excited until they find her.


The Chukors fly beautifully and as a rule roost on the top of the

house. A curious thing is that the Bantam flies as well as they do

and also roosts with them.


They never go very far from the garden, occasionally into the

Park, but always return. Most days they all fly on to the dining-room

window ledge while we are having luncheon, and sit patiently waiting

for bits of bread, and when I go out the Chukors, Bantam, and hybrid

Pheasants (of which I will speak later) always come up to be fed.


They are the most attractive birds and their call quite delightful.

It has been an amusing experiment, well worth trying, and gives one

endless pleasure to watch them.


This year has not been a good one for my breeding birds at Bradley.

I have reared a few Ducks but none of the rarer ones, only Pochard

and Falcated. No Parrakeets have been reared. I think my chief

trouble has been rats. This year they seem to have been very numerous.

They ran about on the tops and sides of aviaries at night and so

frightened the birds off their nests besides destroying many ducklings.


I have reared quite a lot of hybrid Pheasants. My friend Mr. Ezra

gave me a most beautiful Reeves cock, which he said was a murderer

and had killed every Pheasant he could get at on his place, but I

suppose the change of environment altered his wicked ways, as he

has never attempted to do any murders with me. I kept him in the

wallaby paddock and told the keeper (early in this year, about

February) to catch up a few common Pheasant hens out of the woods,

which he did. I clipped their wings and put them with him. They laid

very well and I put the eggs under hens and reared quite a lot, although

I had a great many infertile eggs. I must say they are the most

beautiful birds now they have moulted out. So far a great many have



