The Marquess of Tavistock—Breeding Notes for 1933 385


anxious to get another cock as the present one is elderly and eccentric

and a very lazy husband and parent.


The Browns did badly, hatching only one of their eggs and losing

the young one. Here again the cock needs replacing. A second pair

on loan from Keston arrived late in the season and did not settle down

to business. Brown’s Parrakeets have an unrivalled capacity for

moulting. Their North Australian origin seems to upset their calendar

and many never seem to get it straight again and their motto appears

to be 44 when in doubt, moult The result is that some individuals

accomplish more moults in a year than a Grouse and, while it does not

seem to upset their general health, it seriously interferes with their

breeding. Their compatriots the Hooded are nearly as tiresome.

My hen resolutely refuses to adopt himself to our seasons. She lays

first in October whether she has a nest or not ; loses her young ; nests

again in mid-winter and gets egg-bound ; raises false hopes by dropping

a few feathers in February, moults steadily from March to July, comes

into show condition in August and begins to take a leisurely interest

in the nest in September.


The hen Rosella refused to settle down in the healthy natural tree

trunk I provided her with, but immediately took to a wooden box

I offered in desperation late in the season. She would have done better

to follow my choice of a nest and not her own, for of the six young

hatched one died in the nest and the other five were rickety, two

succumbing after they had flown or rather fallen out.


The Queen of Bavaria Conures had three clear eggs as in 1932.

I have now changed the cock. The present one unfortunately cannot

fly as he has been treated by the native method which, by permanently

destroying the end primaries on one side has the effect of pinioning

without removal of the joint. He is, however, a more richly coloured

bird than the full-winged one and seems anxious to breed.


The Purple Sunbirds did nothing. The cock seemed to want to

nest and at times got very annoyed with the hen and attacked her so

spitefully that it was necessary to provide plenty of thick clumps

of bushes for her to hide in.


The odd cock, a very old bird, managed to break his leg, but it has

mended perfectly with no attention.



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