Correspondence



429



WHITE -FACED WHISTLING TREE-DUCK


I have had a pair of White-faced Whistling Tree-Ducks (Dendrocygna

viduata) for eight years. They have been a very friendly pair, and when I go

to the aviary where they are kept and whistle they will usually fly to me.

I was very surprised this year to find the Duck sitting on a nest of three eggs.

The next morning I found four eggs and, as I thought she might desert the

nest, I took three of the eggs and put them in a nest under a Bantam and one

has hatched out. The little Duck is now about three weeks old and growing

famously. I send you a photograph of him and also of his parents. Since

I took these eggs the Duck has laid some more, in all fifteen, and, as I thought,

the Duck forsook her nest after sitting on it for ten days, I therefore removed

all the eggs and put them under another hen, and now have six

Ducklings, which I am in hopes of being able to rear.


I shall be pleased to hear if this is the first time these Ducks have been

bred in this country. I believe they have been bred in captivity in the States

and on the Continent, but have not heard of them being bred in Great Britain.


J. D. Brunton.


[The White-faced Tree-Duck has been previously bred at Lilford Hall and

by Messrs. McLean and Wormald at East Dereham. —Ed.]



BREEDING HABITS OF RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES


It would appear that the Red-legged Partridges ( Alecloris) have the peculiar

habit of producing two clutches of eggs at each laying period, one of which is

incubated by the hen in the usual manner, the other being taken charge of by

the cock who incubates the eggs and rears the brood. Instances of this have

been recorded in the magazine for August and September last, the species

being Alectoris petrosa and A. Cypriotes. Now Captain Reeve tells me that

people in his neighbourhood believe that the common Red-legged or “ French 55

Partridge (A. rufa) lays two lots of eggs, and from his own experience he

knows their breeding habits to be very peculiar, and that there may be three

or four days between the laying of eggs in a given nest, and a week or more

after finishing before incubation commences, all of which points to two nests

at once, but as he says, “ how is one to absolutely prove it ? ” It should not

be difficult to prove with a single pair of these birds in a large enough aviary.

Anyhow, there is evidently something strange in the nesting habits of this

group of birds, and it behoves all who have an opportunity to study them to

do so.—D. S-S.



SUCCESS WITH GRASS PARRAKEETS IN CALIFORNIA


Several articles have appeared recently in the Avicudtural Magazine

on the breeding of the Bourke’s Grass Parrakeet, and as my experience with

these birds seem to be a little out of lino in some respects, it may be of interest.


Last year I procured two cock Bourke’s from Dr. Hamilton. One of them

was in bad condition upon arrival in Chicago, where Mr. Metzger gave them

a rest and succeeded in getting him back to what appeared to be normal,

but after some three months he died. The other I had traded with Dr. Patrick

for one of the Tavistock birds which was supposed to be a hen. I then turned

this bird into a pen with a hen Blue-wing and a cock Elegant, and

immediately it mated with the hen Blue-wing. I then secured the other bird



