J. Delacour—Breeding and other Notes from Cleres 5


did badly. For some unknown reason, a pair of Black Swans, which

regularly rear five cygnets every spring, had only two. The old pair

of Black-necked were disturbed ; I had the silly idea to put another

pair on the lake in sight of their pond ; accordingly, they were upset

and forsook two nests in succession ; late in May, after the other pair

had been removed, they hatched a chick which developed slowly and

will always be a poor specimen.


Geese, on the contrary, were successful: six Emperors, two Ross’s

Snow, two Blue Snow, four Andean, five Blue-winged, four Ashy¬

headed, and five Magellans were reared. A fine brood of five Ruddy¬

headed were unfortunately destroyed by rats ; eighteen South African

and sixteen Paradise Sheldrake, and six Wild Muscovies were bred. One

double hybrid three-quarter Rajah one-quarter Ruddy Sheldrake was

hatched, but not reared. Among the Ducks and Teal, of which twenty-

five species were successfully reared, a few are worth mentioning. For

the first time in captivity, the New Zealand Shoveller ( Spatula glatalea),

which also occurs in Australia, was bred. Mr. Sydney Porter brought

home one male and two females last year and kindly lent them to me

in the spring. They were full-winged and were put into a duck-aviary,

50 by 25 feet, built over a pond of running water where Cotton Teal,

Spotted Tree-ducks ( Dendroeygna guttata, imported for the first time

from New Guinea), and a few small waders are also kept. Both Ducks

laid, seventeen eggs in all, which were entrusted to Bantams ; seventeen

Ducklings duly hatched after twenty-five days. The first brood of six,

treated like all other closely related ducklings did well for a week, then

died one after the other, till only one was left; this was reared but

got killed by a rat later on. The second brood of eleven were specially

treated and did well at first but, again, losses were heavy after a

fortnight and finally six only reached maturity. It is no doubt a very

delicate species for the first few weeks of its existence, but it is fairly

certain that we can establish it, now that we know that it requires

special care and feeding.


We also fully reared eight Versicolor Teal out of eight eggs laid on

an island in the lake by a female imported last year. This pretty

species was bred many years ago, I think, but this brood seems to be

the first to be reared in captivity for the last thirty or forty years.



