The Marquess of Tavistock—Breeding Results of 1938 343



of the aviary shelter late in the year, and incubated the egg which,

as usual, proved infertile. It is doubtful if she paired with the cock,

who is a comparatively new arrival.


The Leadbeater’s Cockatoos, which reared two good young ones in

1936 and two rickety young in 1937, this season murdered their young

ones when they were a few weeks old, a vice, I understand, not un¬

common in captive Leadbeaters. Being disgusted with their bad

behaviour, I decided to train them as liberty birds, and so far they

are staying well. The cock had always flown in a slightly lopsided

manner, but it was only when I released him that I realized that he

was partly pinioned. However, though his wings are very decidedly

uneven, he seems able to get about well enough, and the pair look

very lovely in flight. Unfortunately, my appreciation of their appear¬

ance was not shared by the other inmates of the aviaries, all of whom,

from the biggest to the smallest, were absolutely terrified of them,

and convinced that they were birds of prey of the most bloodthirsty

description ! That the Asiatic Parrakeets should have been alarmed

was perhaps excusable, but the Australians were every bit as bad, even

though the wild-bred ones must have seen Cockatoos by the hundred

in their native land. This curious weakness in the ornithology of

Australian Parrakeets I observed many years ago when I had a

Banksian Cockatoo at liberty, of whose appearance in the air they

also were extremely terrified.


Roseate Cockatoos did not do well. A grey hen* paired to her

white-bred son, had young which only lived a few days, possibly owing

to the parents being too nearly related. The white pair appeared to

be about to nest in a grandfather-clock box, but at the last moment

the hen took a dislike to it, perhaps because it contained too thin a

layer of rotten wood above the peat, and dropped her eggs from the

perch in the aviary shelter. A white-bred hen which laid last year

did not take any interest in her nest this season, the reason, I think,

being that she had no proper mate. There was a white bird in the

same aviary, but it is a rather curious creature, and I have never been

able to be quite sure of its sex, nor do I believe it knows itself!


Gang-gang Cockatoos, as described in another article, nested

successfully, and reared two young. Unfortunately the young hen,



