Correspondence



459



Mr. Porter would have your readers believe that our farmers bum off the

bush and then tolerate the thistle, ragwort, and gorse because they remind

them of home. If only he knew of the number of struggling farmers who

have been driven off their land by these cursed pests ! Does he really imagine

that farmers spend large sums of money in bringing bush land to a state of

productivity and then welcome the thistle and gorse ?


After all, one’s first business is to live, and our farmers are merely

endeavouring to carry out this duty by bringing land into productivity which

previously yielded nothing.


Once they were called “ pioneers ”, now they call them “ vandals ”. But

were it not for them many of us would go hungry to bed !


No, Sir, the average New Zealand farmer is not quite such a blackguard

as Mr. Porter would have your readers believe. Would it surprise you to

learn that many of them even take an interest and a pride in our native flora

and that they fence and protect (and even re-plant) such patches as remain,

upon their properties ?


One appreciates and makes allowances for the fact that Mr. Porter is a

very keen admirer of our native birds—some of us actually love them too !

Mr. Porter should endeavour to recover his sense of proportion.


Alex. R. Strang.


Frankleigh Park,


New Plymouth, N.Z.



CONDOR BREEDING IN CAPTIVITY IN GERMANY


A breeding record which I cannot find among those given so far by

Dr. Hopkinson is that of the Condor ( Sarcorhamphu-s gryphus). This big

Vulture has nested with full success here in the Zoological Garden six years

ago, and the chick which has been reared is alive to-day. Also in 1928 the

pair nested but the chicks did not live. The birds live all the year round

in a big aviary and stand our very severe winters (we had 28° Reaumur

below zero last year) perfectly.


I have further found that the Roulroul (Rollulus roulroul ) has been bred

by a Mr. August Wiener in London as long ago as 1878. Bruno Duerigen

states in his book on poultry-keeping that two chicks were hatched in the

aviaries of Mr. Wiener, but whether they lived to maturity is not mentioned.


Alex Hampe.



NEW VARIETIES IN BUDGERIGARS


I notice in this month’s (October) Avicultural Magazine a note on

above, and I would like to point out that similar birds were bred by Mr. Hood

and Mrs. Flowers—both members of the Avicultural Society of America.

I saw the birds myself and a most peculiar thing about them was the nose¬

bands were practically alike in both sexes. I believe they were exhibited at

the last foreign bird show held at Long Beach, California.


The pair of Bourke’s Parrakeets belonging to Messrs. Arnold & Purvine

have raised ten young ones this season, and their Elegant Parrakeets have

increased to a flock of over fifty.



Francis H. Rudkin.



