294 Lady Poltimore—Breeding Black-headed and White-breasted Caiques



BREEDING OF THE BLACK-HEADED AND

WHITE-BREASTED CAIQUES


By Lady Poltimore


As there does not appear to be a record of the breeding of Caiques

in captivity, I have been ashed to give an account of my pair, whose

sole offspring left the nest about two weeks ago.


I procured my Caiques in the spring of 1931, through the kindness

of our Secretary, Miss Knobel, in whose possession they were at that

time. The cock is a Black-headed Caique, and the hen of the White¬

breasted variety. They are a very tame and delightful little pair,

the hen especially being a great pet, and never so happy as when

she is being made a fuss of, and will come on to anyone’s hand. The

cock is more nervous, and has been very savage during the nesting

season.


For a year after I first owned these birds, I kept them in a cage,

letting them out for a fly in the room each day, but they are such active

birds that I thought they should have more freedom and exercise,

so in the summer of 1932 I put them in an aviary of which they were

the only occupants. This aviary is heated by hot-water pipes, and

has a garden flight which they use in warm weather, but they are

always shut into the inside portion at night, and in the winter. I have

found these birds very susceptible to cold, and during the time that

they have been breeding this summer, we have often had to give

them artificial heat.


For two years in succession they have laid two clutches of eggs,

incubating them for a month, after which period we have examined

the eggs and have always found them to be clear.


This year they started nesting operations as usual in May (I do

not allow them to have a nest-box earlier than this as our springs are

very late and cold) and the hen laid four eggs, and started incubation.

The hen remained almost entirely in the nest-box, coming out only

to feed, and the male sat on a perch just outside ready to attack any

inquisitive person who ventured too near his nest! Both the gardeners

who clean this aviary and feed the birds have been badly bitten by

him on many occasions. After about four weeks, the gardener examined



