Correspondence on Breeding Lutinos



159



mother was not too near, he must have whispered into his young sons’

ears Mr. Weller’s advice to “ beware of widders


Three years ago I duplicated this aviary and in it I have Cut-throats,

Zebras, Cordon Bleus, Gouldians, and a Rainbow Bunting. One day

last week (I am writing on 11th February) I was a little alarmed to

see the Gouldian with feathers drenched from a bath that he had just

taken in water dripping from a lump of melting ice. Up to now he

is none the worse for it. The hen Gouldian died early in the winter

but a post mortem cleared myself and the aviary from blame. The

same applies to the wife that I bought for the Rainbow Bunting when

in immature plumage. Mr. Hicks diagnosed a complaint of long

standing but, personally, I think that her death was due to the shock

of finding when she moulted that instead of being a hen Rainbow she

was a cock Nonpareil. The readjustment of ideas required to meet

the situation would put a strain on the nervous system of any really

nice-minded bird.


The Cut-throats and Zebras breed so freely that I do not see why

some success should not attend the attempts to breed some of the

less common birds under similar conditions. In future though I intend

to catch up all hens and keep them in a separate enclosure until early

in May.


If this article is not already too long I should like to say how very

grateful I am to some kind lady, who, a year or two ago, gave a descrip¬

tion of her feeding box made with the aid of empty spirit bottles.

I use these in both aviaries and feeding is done only once a week. Each

variety of seed (canary, white millet, and Indian millet) is kept separate;

there is no waste of seed and no husks on the floor of the aviary.



CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. A. EZRA

AND MR. G. E. TERRILL ON BREEDING


LUTINOS


Bear Sir,


A letter written by your curator and published in Cage Birds

refers to your successful breeding of blue and also of lutino Alexandrines.

Owing to the fact that much that is incorrect and more that is



