36 The Marquess of Tavistock—Breeding of the Tahiti Blue Lory


as he showed a disposition, apparently common in males of his species,

to attack his mate suddenly and viciously, even after appearing just

before on the most friendly terms with her. It may be that this trouble

only occurs when the hen is not in breeding condition and the cock is,

as latterly the relations of the couple have been much more harmonious.

Although the cock Lory was a nice specimen, the hen at first was not

a particularly good bird and would not bathe, and I regarded her as

a most unlikely proposition from the breeding point of view !


When the aviaries were at last ready, I put the couple of peruvianus

in adjoining partitions and kept them separated for several weeks,

until the hen seemed anxious to join her mate and he was feeding her

through the wire netting. When I put them together, as already

stated, they agreed quite well and often played together in the puppyish

fashion common to the Lory family.


The nest was put in in September, and towards the end of the

month I heard with surprise that the pair were taking a considerable

amount of interest in it. A little later, with even more surprise, I heard

that two eggs had been laid (the normal clutch for this species), but

the greatest thrill of all occurred between three and four weeks later,

when the news reached me that a young one had actually hatched,

the other egg having been slightly damaged and therefore having

produced nothing. I accepted it as a foregone conclusion that the

next bit of news would be the report of the young bird’s untimely

death, but instead of that, to my never-ending amazement, it both

thrived and grew !


The habits of the old birds during incubation were interesting.

I expected, either that both would spend a great deal of time on the

nest or that the hen would do all the sitting, being fed by her mate.

Instead of that, they took turns at incubating, and when the baby was

quite small, it was the mother who appeared to do most of the foraging

for food, while the father stayed at home and looked after the

nestling.


Unlike most members of the slow-growing genus, the little Lory

matured rapidly, and was out of the nest about eight weeks after the

first egg had been laid. When he was about three weeks’ old, with

some trepidation, I decided to have a look at him. His parents,



