Correspondence



427



should have found the bodies, and it was supposed that either a rat had got

into their enclosure and dragged them away or else that they had escaped

through the wire-netting ; in any case, nothing more was heard of them... . .


One day last week I was rung up and told a large unknown bird “ like a Pea¬

fowl ” was feeding with the fowls on a chicken-farm 15 miles away, would

I go over and see what it was ? On arrival I found a large and very healthy -

looking female Vulturine Guineafowl, quite tame and in perfect condition.

As no one except myself in Norfolk keeps these birds I can only suppose

that it is one of the chicks of two years ago which, as we surmised, had escaped

and managed to survive and maintain itself, and had gradually strayed farther

and farther afield till it was captured, as I have said, 15 miles away. It is

remarkable, however, that such a delicate bird, susceptible to cold and

intensely so to frost-bite, should have managed to weather two severe

winters and also to have escaped not only being shot but also, apparently,

being seen or noticed as something unusual for such a long period.


G. H. Gurney.



CORMORANT KILLING YOUNG DUCKS


With regard to Mr. J. Roberts’s note in the October number of the

Magazine, querying whether Cormorants attacked other birds in a wild state,

1 think it is highly probable that they occasionally do so if annoyed or incon¬

venienced by them, though possibly not with any special idea of killing them.

I remember seeing on the Saltee Islands, off the coast of Wexford, a Cormorant

which was sitting on eggs, amongst a crowd of Guillemots and Razorbills,

repeatedly make vicious stabs with her beak at the latter when they came

too near her nest, and actually leave her eggs and savagely attack a Kittiwake

Gull which had settled on the rock in close proximity to the nest. In

captivity they are distinctly dangerous to other birds. Two specimens which

at different times found a temporary home here on a pond with a lot of

Waterfowl, killed two or three young ducklings which ventured too near ;

on the other hand, a Shag seemed more amenable and I never remember

seeing it interfere with anything, but that may have been merely luck.

Gannets are not to be trusted with Ducks; they are very spiteful on land, but

do not seem to interfere with them in the water. When my father was writing

his monograph on the Gannet we had seven or eight specimens here at different

times for observation purposes, and they killed several Ducks and quite

a number of Waterhens. During the past recent hot summer the White

Fantail Pigeons here would fly down to drink from the Pelicans’ pool, the

latter snapped the luckless Pigeons up in a moment and, if not too large,

always swallowed them.


G. H. Gurney.



USEFUL FEEDERS OR DRINKERS


After trying all imaginable kinds of water-fountains and fountain-baths

and seed-hoppers for the aviary, each one having some disadvantage, I saw

the attached sketch, which seems to meet all requirements. It is simply

a whisky-bottle inverted. All one requires is some 1-inch board ; pierce with



