J. Delacour —■ Full-winged Birds in Parks and Gardens 205


garden from April to November, as they will feed mostly on worms

and insects and quickly regain, or retain, their lovely vivid red dress.


Naturally, experiments on full-winged birds must be carried out

with species which are naturally sedentary ; but, with special pre¬

cautions, a certain amount of success can be attained with more or

less migratory birds. The largest birds that can be kept full-winged

are the Cranes. But only tropical species of sedentary habits give

good results. Others, such as Manchurian and European Grey Cranes

can be induced to stay, even breed, but sooner or later they may

go away. Some are most satisfactory and stay very well, only some¬

times straying a few miles in search of a suitable breeding place. Most

probably, Australian and Eastern Sams would also prove successful,

but I know of no experiments with them. Stanleys and Crown Cranes

are also good stayers, but Demoiselles will practically always go,

even young birds bred on the spot, as I have tried it.


With Cranes, it is always necessary to keep the birds with cut

feathers for a year on their ground, and for doubtfully resident species,

to have only the male fly, the hen being pinioned. The drawback

of full-winged Cranes, especially Sarus, is that they may go to other

birds’ paddocks, kill them and destroy eggs and chicks. But

there is no finer thing to watch than these huge birds circling round

in the sky or flying low over the country.


Outside of the Common Mute Swan, no other species is suitable

for keeping full-winged. I have not tried Black-necked Swans nor

Coscorobas ; Black Swans usually migrate, although a few full-winged

ones have stayed at Woburn.


Cereopsis Geese invariably stray very soon. Of other Geese, the

South American Chloephagor (Magellan, Ashy, and Buddy-headed)

are excellent stayers ; very probably, Andean, Maned, and Abyssinian

Blue-winged Geese would also prove satisfactory. Egyptian and

Orinoco Geese stay also perfectly well, but the former are very dangerous

to young Ducks, and cannot be recommended. Of the true Geese,

all are migratory, therefore not very suitable, Grey Lags and

Canadians have been kept free with some success, as well as White-

fronted and Lesser Snow Geese ; but they wander about a good deal,

and every year many disappear. Imported Bar-headed Geese usually



