Marquis of Tavistock—Breeding Notes for 1936



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and though she reared a few young in it she has proved latterly a

lazy feeder.


Crimson-wings which for years have been regular and successful

breeders failed entirely this season. My old breeding hen had died

and her successor refused to take to any kind of nest or sit on eggs

anywhere but on the floor of the aviary shelter, a hopeless place for

a species whose young above all things need to be in the open air.

The second hen hatched two young but lost them inexplicably when

half-grown. She laid again but got bored and deserted her fertile eggs

a few days before they were due to hatch. Hen Crimson-wings are

not enthusiastic sitters. Normally single-brooded, they can rarely

bring themselves to incubate two clutches of eggs for the full time

in the same season and the Keston Foreign Bird Farm have a hen

whose ideas of the period of incubation for Crimson-wings are unhappily

about three days short of Nature’s, so even the first clutch is deserted

when on the point of hatching !


The old breeding hen King, after wasting two seasons with an

infertile mate, again this year reared a nice family of four with a

new cock.


A cock Salwatty and hen Amboina King had had a stormy matri¬

monial career. Three years ago they produced a young one but it

w r as rickety and died after leaving the nest. Shortly after this tragedy

the hen suddenly turned on her mate and scalped him.


Next spring they were again introduced and seemed pleased to

see each other but within twenty-four hours the Amboina once more

scalped her husband. Last year I kept them apart, but this season,

being short of aviary room, I decided to treat the Amboina as one

treats cock Parrakeets that are dangerous bullies and partly cut her

wing. They agreed all right but did not nest.


With the exception of the Browns, which, after their maddening

custom, wasted the whole summer in two successive moults, Broad¬

tails did fairly well. The old pair of Mealy Rosellas reared two

broods of five and three. A second pair had five but the cock took

a sudden and violent dislike to one of his offspring and tore off its

upper mandible. The others were not molested and the pair did not

nest again. Oddly enough a very prolific and reliable breeding cock



