Dr. M. Amsler—Breeding Failures



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when their parents have this form of semi-liberty. Each night the

little aviary door was closed; it was always easy to make certain that

the cock was home, but more difficult in the case of the hen, as

she was, of course, brooding her offspring at the bottom of the

nest-box.


After a few days I took to leaving the little liberty door just ajar

so that the birds could come in last thing at night and go out in the

early morning. I also smeared some “ Renardine ” round the door

to keep away nocturnal marauders such as rats and mice.


One morning, it was on the tenth day, I immediately saw that

something was amiss. The cock Shama was sitting inside the aviary

looking very piano, and evinced none of the usual excitement on

seeing me and my tin of mealworms. I instinctively knew that the hen

was missing, and on looking into the nest-box found three well-feathered

young, dead and stiff, and no signs of the hen.


She had evidently come to an untimely end in the wild.


So ended my season of breeding Shamas. This kind of thing always

leaves one very depressed for a few days. It is the reaction from the

intense pleasure of seeing one’s exotic birds happy and at liberty, and

also of knowing that the young are being fed on the fat of the land,

and not restricted to a diet of mealworms, gentles, and possibly ants’

eggs.


One must take comfort in these failures, for to any one who takes

an intelligent interest in our wild birds it must be manifest that the

mortality among the parent birds, and also among the nestlings, is

very great.


This has been brought home to me very forcibly in looking for

and watching the common Robin, which I have so often used as a

foster-parent.


I should estimate that once in every four attempts something

happens to the parents, the nest, the eggs, or the young. Well, hope

springs eternal both among breeding birds and also among aviculturists.

It is always “ next time ” or “ next year ”. I had almost forgotten

my Jobi Island White-fronted Doves, latterly called Amethyst Ground

Doves. I do not know who is responsible for the change of name.

Possibly the dealers have found it remunerative to manufacture a



