86



The Marquess of Tavistock—Facts and Figures



Bluebonnets, Crimsonwings, Kings, and Barrabands seem to be

particularly keen on them ; also the Gang-gang Cockatoos.


A trial was also made of giving daily a very small quantity of

sweetened bread-and-milk, a piece about the size of the last joint of

the finger for each bird. This is eaten voraciously by the Gang-gang

Cockatoos and occasionally by the Leadbeaters and Banksian. It is

also much appreciated by the Amboina Kings, most of the Crimsonwings,

Barrabands, and Bock Peplars, some of the Common Kings, the Amazon

and Grey Parrots, some of the Bayards and Plumheads, the Conures,

Swifts, and some of the young Bingnecks. It is more or less ignored by

the Broadtails with the exception of some of the young birds bred

this year. The Boseate Cockatoos, Malabars, and Palm Cockatoos also

do not care for it.


I tried the experiment of giving twice a week a very small quantity

of cooked beef fat. This is much appreciated by the Gang-gang

Cockatoos, the Amboina Kings, and by some of the Common Kings,

but is ignored by most of the other birds.


It is generally noticeable that young birds bred in captivity are

more ready to try new experiments in diet and take to new foods than

their wild-caught parents. This may be partly due to the

curiosity of youth, but their need of certain food elements, absent

in the normal diet of captivity, may have something to do with

it as well.


Young birds whose parents were taking bread-and-milk freely

when they were feeding them in the nest, were, as a rule, rather notice¬

ably large, fine, and well-grown on leaving the nest, although they did

not appear to be better able to resist infectious disease than those of

their fellows who were somewhat less well-grown and had been reared

on seed and green food alone.


The breeding record now remains to be considered. In some ways

the past season was not an altogether fair test, as the birds were being

moved to a new locality until the spring was well advanced. Surpris¬

ingly few former breeding pairs were, however, upset by the move,

and in the three or four cases where they did not settle down and lay

this season, it was almost invariably when they had had to be moved

to a new aviary some weeks after their arrival at Haywards Heath,



