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Lord Tavistock—Breeding Results for 1937



cock, of hurling herself into the nest as though projected from a catapult,

apparently believing that an egg will arrive immediately! She does

this even when not very near laying and not as yet spending much

time in the log.


My efforts to breed rare Conures gave X a lot of amusement without

even putting him to the necessity of taking drastic action on the

birds’ lives.


I had, as I believed, a pair of Queen of Bavarias. The hen had

produced young two years ago, but these were killed by the cock and I

obtained another one to replace the murderer. They duly went to

nest in the middle of the summer and, although the cock spent more

time in the nest than his predecessors had done and was not seen to

feed the hen, I did not think much of it as I had read that it is usual for

both sexes of other species of Conures to spend much time together in

their home. Inspection of the nest after about ten days revealed two

sound eggs and one broken one. The accident to the latter was no

doubt due to the fact that both birds are very tame and on hearing

anyone near they rush out to yell at him, afterwards bundling down the

nest together like a sack of coals. The weeks went by and my hopes

rose as the couple sat more tightly for the hen previously had not been

in the habit of sitting over-time on clear eggs. Finally, we had a look.

No young but four eggs ! I looked at the “ cock ” very closely and the

more I did so the less masculine did “ he ” appear ! Then the truth

dawned on me : my “ pair ” are two hens and the chance of my getting

a cock in these days is indeed remote !


Now for the Bed-breasted Conures, one of the rarest and loveliest of

the genus and possessed into the bargain of quite innocuous voices. I

had had three birds for about a couple of years but was a little puzzled

as to their sex. One of the trio, though resembling the others in head

conformation, was rather different in colour from the other two, was

bolder and more aggressive, and in 1936 was frequently seen to pair with

its companions. On the other hand, it rather puzzled us by doing most

of the incubation of the one egg that was laid and which proved infertile.

I decided this year to break up the Triple Entente when the breeding

season arrived as, although the three Conures were good friends, their

habit of roosting all together did not seem very conducive to the safety



