Carl Naether—Observations on Keeping Foreign Doves



45



The Koklass (Pucrasia), a bird not well known to Pheasant keepers

in Europe, is, I understand, very plentiful in its native habitat, and is

the most insectivorous of all the Pheasants. The plumage of these birds,

'though not brilliant, is a very pleasing mixture of many shades of

blacks, browns, and greys. It is a dapper little bird, and I thought

very desirable from an aviculturist’s point of view.


The Elegant Pheasants live right down in the valleys and are very

common everywhere. They remind one very much of a hybrid between

P. colchicus and P. versicolor. They are very dark in colour.


There appears to be a great difficulty in getting any live Pheasants

out of China, officially of course, for although millions of frozen

Pheasants are sent to the American and European markets, live ones

are forbidden to be exported, though with the aid of a few dollars this

difficulty is easily overcome.


There is little chance that any more of these Pheasants mentioned

will be exported from China, unless a special expedition is financed by

aviculturists, as none of these birds appear to be caught or handled by

the Chinese themselves, and only a man of indomitable courage and

with unlimited financial backing will face the risks and dangers of such

an expedition. Even if one does obtain the birds one is never sure that

they will ever reach the coast.


(To be continued.)



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON KEEPING

FOREIGN DOVES


By Carl Naether


t During the past year I have experimented with various types of

pens for my small collection of foreign Doves. Owing to the fact that

cats troubled the doves considerably in the night by running back and

forth on the wire-netting covering the top—cats which I could not very

well destroy since they belonged to my neighbours—I decided to cover the

various aviary-pens with solid board roofs. Fellow Dove fanciers tried

to dissuade me from doing this on the ground that the individual pens

would be much too dark and gloomy and would, therefore, be unsuitable



