30



Correspondence



weeks with his four children, to whom he has been a model father, so he had

not grown accustomed to solitude. I therefore hoped that if we caught the

young brood, causing him some anxiety and alarm, shut him up alone in the

shelter, released the hen in the flight, and then opened the slide quietly,

he might come out again sufficiently confused by recent events to accept

her as part of the normal menage. If one had been dealing with the

“ automaton ” type of bird, i.e. with one of those passerines of low intelligence

which react to their immediate environment and, like babies, are not given

to reflection, it would almost certainly have worked, but the Brown’s knew

as well as I did the nature of the change when he walked out of the shelter

and met, not his offspring, but their mamma on the threshold. For a brief

moment his better nature almost triumphed. He answered her pleased

greeting with a deep bow and a tremendous display of his lovely violet

shoulders. But a moment later his old crabbed self reasserted itself and he

made one or two spiteful swoops at her, chattering as he did so. Even then

his mind was not fully made up and they soon settled down side by side,

and I hoped that peace would continue. About half an hour later he attacked

her again and drove her into the shelter, coming out himself and settling

down to what was evidently a period of further reflection. Then, very

deliberately and with the air of one who has given a matter full and careful

attention from every aspect, he re-entered his wife’s refuge and addressed

himself to the task of hunting her to death ... at which point appeared the

aviary attendant and the scissors.


Tavistock.



PHEASANT NOTES


I was interested to read the notes on Fancy Pheasants in the November

number of this Magazine. Firstly, I notice Dr. Evelyn Sprawson had very

bad luck with his Tragopans. As he mentions, I have never found the cocks

molest the hens in any way and I have had a few pairs of these birds from

time to time. I have always found them most docile. They are my favourite

Pheasants, not only because their colouring is beautiful but chiefly because

they become so extraordinarily tame in such a short time. I never shut my

birds up in their shelter either during winter or summer, and they spend

most of their time in the open, very rarely going in the shed except to dust

themselves. I have never known my Tragopans nest on the ground. They

always like to lay their eggs on an elevation I give mine a box lined with

dead leaves. I consider seven fertile eggs out of nine laid is very good for

Tragopans. It is bad luck only to have reared one. But I know only too well

what disappointments one has with these Pheasants when trying to rear

them. Gentles are undoubtedly splendid for them but given in strict modera¬

tion. I give mine custard for the first few weeks. The chicks must have

plenty of liberty, as they are good foragers. I only reared one this year out

of four chicks hatched. I quite think I could have reared two more but

unfortunately we had a very bad storm when the eggs were being sat on by

a Bantam and were due to hatch in a day or two. The poor Bantam was

sitting in water. The chicks hatched all right but there is no doubt it affected

them. They would not eat and the Bantam was not too good in finding

them food. Silky Bantams are splendid mothers but sometimes they are



