384 The Marquess of Tavistock—Breeding Notes for 1933



a much richer pink and a better contrast to the snowy wings. I was

hoping to breed another lutino Bingneck, but the law of averages was

relentless and I had to pay for my good fortune last year when two

fine lutinos were reared in one brood and have since grown well.


One pair which have never yet produced anything with both size

and stamina reared an extremely fine green young one. The hen

is not a very good flier and plucks the feathers of her rump and to see

if I could offset those evidences of degeneracy I gave them nothing

to drink except water containing yolk of raw egg and orange juice.

I intend to try further experiments by giving this mixture to birds

rearing young.


The hen who reared the lutinos last year is a most miserable

specimen and unable to fly and her mate is not much better, either

physically or morally, for he is a baby-killer and has to be removed

before his offspring hatch. This year the mother of the lutinos got

egg-bound with her second egg. When an elderly hen Bingneck begins

to get egg-bound it usually means the end of her breeding career and

the signal of approaching sterility. I wondered if the two lutinos

would not prove to be the old lady’s swan-song in the breeding line !

The first pair of eggs failed to hatch under foster parents but in May

the Bingneck nested again and although she made rather heavy

weather of it, succeeded, with the aid of hot sun and warm nights,

in laying two more eggs which not only hatched but produced

two fine green young ones fully reared and free from any defects.


The third pair of Bingnecks were a lutino-bred cock and a three-

year-old untested green hen bred from lutino-breds. I was rather

inclined to think that this hen was sterile, for, as a two-year-old she

had taken not the slightest interest in the nest-box. However, I was

wrong for she laid four eggs and hatched two green young which she

reared, though she plucked their heads and backs rather badly and one

is not a very good specimen.


Barnards did nothing beyond look at their nest, the hen being a

young one, and wintered indoors.


The Pennants hatched three out of six eggs in the coco-nut-husk

box for which the hen has a predilection. One died when a few days

old. The others are about half-grown at the time of writing. I am



