234



Correspondence



Choughs seemed afraid of, interfered, so nothing came of it. This year the

Choughs seemed masters of the Jacks, and successfully built a nest. Just

before she began to sit I examined the nest and found in it four Chough’s

and three Jackdaw’s eggs. After the Chough had sat three weeks or so


1 examined the eggs and found them all to be unfertile.


The Alpine Chough is not included in Dr. Hopkinson’s book on birds bred

in captivity, and I wonder if this is the first record of it having done so.


I have lost by death this month a Chinese Painted Quail (Excalf actor ia

chinensis), after having laid forty-nine eggs during the season. The Quails

are housed in an aviary in which there are about fifty small foreign Finches.

The Quails keep to the floor of the sleeping quarters, which is about

15 ft. x 4 ft. They never go into the flight. I put some heather in one comer

and they had twelve eggs in the first nest; she left these and made another

nest at the other end of the aviary. These twelve eggs my gardener, George,

who attends to the birds and is a keen aviculturist, took home and set under

a Bantam, but she broke them all. The Quail then laid six more eggs :

five of these were put in a Blackbird’s nest in the big aviary. These hatched

sooner than we expected; three young disappeared and two eggs left in the

nest had fully developed young in. The Quail then had a nest of thirteen eggs :

twelve of these were put under a Bantam, and she hatched ten but crushed

them all to death. The Quail then had a nest of six eggs. These she sat herself

and hatched six young. Unfortunately four of these were drowned when


2 days old in a saucer of water. The other two are now fine healthy birds.

When the two young were about 4 weeks old the Quail began to lay again,

and after laying twelve eggs died. The twelve eggs have been set under

a Bantam and better luck is hoped for this time.


I have a Spreo Starling, but which of the Spreos it is I do not know. She

has a nest of four blue eggs. In the same aviary there are two Purple-backed

Starlings and one Red-eyed Glossy Starling ; the sex of these I do not know.

The Spreo is sitting we]l, but whether the eggs will be fertile or not

I cannot say.


D. Losh Thorpe.



SUCCESS WITH FIRE FINCHES AND CORDON BLEUS


I have had two rather delightful successes lately in my indoor

bird-room. First I managed to rear a Fire Finch, which left the nest on the

3rd November. This mite was reared to a great extent by electric fight!

I turned on the fight between 5.30 and 6 o’clock, as soon as I saw the parents

feeding. One day it was very stormy and the birds were in bed before 3.30

in the afternoon. It was useless fighting up in the evening ; they never took

the food and only got disturbed. The November baby was a hen, and she

and her mother sat together this month and produced between them a baby

which left the nest last Saturday. Both hens think it their own and both feed

it with the cock !


My joy on Saturday was eclipsed on Sunday by the Cordons bringing

out of their nest a baby, too ! This I do feel is a feat, as I have been trying

for four years to breed Cordons in a room. They had mealworms and ants’

eggs, but no gentles until I saw the baby ; but they have fed regularly on the

food given to the Canaries—hard-boiled egg and biscuit—one teaspoonful

of egg to two of thin arrowroot biscuit given at stated intervals, and at 1 o’clock



