Dr. M. Amsler—Breeding Failures 77


BREEDING FAILURES


By Dr. M. Amsler


When I retired from medical practice at Eton and settled down at

Hawkhurst, Kent, I made sure that my breeding results would be

vastly improved by the change from the murky valley of the Thames

to an open and airy spot about 10 miles from the sea, where fogs are

quite a rare event, and one’s birds get a maximum of light and sun,

but these notes are a recital of the almost incredible sequence of

disappointments during 1936.


When I lived at Eton I had eight aviaries. Although four of them

were quite small affairs of 2 or 3 yards in length, the four main

aviaries were built round a solid wooden shed 20 feet by 20 feet, which

was divided into four partitions, each 10 feet square, and opening on

to flights about 12 feet long.


From a spectacular point of view these larger aviaries are the best—•

but for the breeding of birds pure and simple, a small aviary with

only one pair gives the best results every time.


In the above small aviaries I have bred such unusual species as

the Occipital Blue Pie and the Chinese Blue-winged Magpie. Older

readers will also remember my partial successes with Golden-fronted

Fruitsuckers. Young were hatched on three occasions, and once

lived to the age of twelve days. In another of these small flights a

pair of Swainson’s Lorikeets fully reared twenty young in two years,

and it must be remembered that the full clutch of these birds is only

two ; in still another, only 12 feet long, a pair of Rosellas reared

seventeen young in one season, two clutches of ten and seven eggs all

hatched and left together for want of room until the end of the season.

The sight of these nineteen birds in one small flight was almost suggestive

of a dealer’s cage. Next year the same pair only reared three, but

I suppose they had shot their bolt.


These reminiscences are a digression from my original theme of

lamentation, but they were leading up to a description of my present

aviaries.


The large shelter shed from Eton was taken down, and after much

consultation with haulage contractors it was moved to Hawkhurst,


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