34



/. Delacour—Bird Notes from CUres for 1932



common to a good many of the animals of these black lava islands.

It nests among the rocks, and Lord Moyne found two females sitting

each on three eggs.


The specimen that has arrived is a young bird and feeding on live

fish, which it is beginning to take well, in the diving-bird tank. Its

wings, entirely lacking feathers capable of flight, and its huge feet are

clearly seen in the photograph.


This is the first time this Cormorant has been brought alive to

this country, though it has been exhibited in New York.


D. Seth-Smith.



BIRD NOTES FROM CLERES FOR 1932


By J. Delacour


On the whole the weather of this last year has been quite good in

Normandy. The winter was exceptionally dry and bright, although

quite mild, and practically no losses occurred. The summer was also

very fine, dry on the whole, and in this cool valley not too hot, except

for a few days in August. Unfortunately April and May were wet and

cold, and the result was that birds in general, but mostly Pheasants,

laid few eggs and late, or even in some cases none at all.


Only one Darwin’s Bhea was hatched early in May, but it obstinately

refused to feed and, in spite of all sorts of attentions, died after three

or four days. Grey and White Rheas, seventeen in all, were reared as

usual without any difficulty. * However, I must warn fellow avi-

culturists to carefully avoid dampness at night with young Rheas.

When about four weeks old, we moved our birds to a fresh field in

which the hut, where they are shut in at night, had no wooden floor,

but one of bare earth instead, and slightly damp. Within a few days

all the young Rheas had cramp and distorted legs and looked like

dying. In haste we put them back into their old pen to sleep on a

dry wooden floor, and in the space of one week they had all recovered.


Owing to the cold weather in the spring some of my good breeding



