8



A. C. Furner—A Derby Member's Aviaries



Amongst the small Finches the only breeding success has been

Long-tailed Grass Finches who had two nests ; the first nest producing

three young, the second nest two. We had misfortune again here,

for the hen and one of the young birds were roosting out on the first

cold night of autumn and the following morning we found them both

dead on the floor. The cock bird has continued to rear and feed the

other one.


With regard to Lovebirds, although my aviaries contained three

Fischers, five Masked and six Nyassas, just to show their contrariness

the total offspring are represented by four hybrids, produced by a

cock Fischer and a hen Masked. If any of our members would kindly

tell me the name of a reliable person for sexing these birds I should

be grateful.


I did hear many years ago that there was a man who specialized

in such work, somewhere in Ireland, who was almost infallible, but

it has never been my luck to find anyone so gifted.


This year for the first time I have tried Pheasants. A friend kindly

fixed me up with a young cock Lady Amherst and I bought a hen

from Mr. Spencer. These birds started laying eggs at the beginning

of May and solidly continued to lay for about six weeks. I wasted the

time of several broody hens over a period of three weeks sitting on them

with negative results all round.


Since the cock bird has come into colour it has been noted that

there has been something wrong somewhere for there is a very decided

strain of Golden Pheasant, and I am wondering if this or the fact that

the birds were young accounts for the infertility of the eggs.


The Gouldians this year up to now have proved obstinate and are

only using their nesting boxes as bedrooms. When the nest-boxes

were first put in about July, out of the six pairs which are up for nesting

five of the hens were almost lost with egg-binding, and had it not been

for the services of a friend of mine who is an adept at breaking eggs in

the bird, I should certainly have lost at least three of the hens. The

failure with the Gouldians has been particularly disappointing inasmuch

as the year before last when only one pair was put up they produced

and reared fourteen youngsters.


Mr. Teague’s article on Gouldians, published about 1931, has been



