Lord Tavistock—Breeding Results for 1937



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illness the hen laid. Almost up to the last moment I never expected

the eggs to be fertile as the cock, though interested enough in the

nest, absolutely refused to feed the hen or pair with her. At the very

last moment, however, he relented, being apparently determined to

do his duty when need arose, but to waste no superfluous energy.

Anyhow, from the time the first egg was laid he started to feed the hen

assiduously, and she, for her part, had her revenge on him

for his early neglect, for she hardly left the nest at all until

the young were almost fully fledged ! I do not think the cock

would have survived the heavy strain imposed on him had he not

proved very fond of bread and milk and cooked beef fat. Two lovely

youngsters left the nest, and for a day or two, after the first emerged,

the cock would not allow the hen to go anywhere near it. Apparently

he feared she might get some of the credit for what he not unjustly

felt was his own achievement !


The hen Bock Peplar had had such an easy time of it that she

proceeded to lay a second clutch of eggs—a most unusual proceeding

for this single-brooded species. However, she did not sit, either

because she felt that her long-suffering husband should not be tried

too hard, or because he made it plain that he was not going to do any

more ! The subsequent history of the family was rather sad, both

youngsters when fully reared dying of the common scourge of young

Parrakeets—septicaemia.


For the past two years an unmated cock Barraband had occupied

an aviary with a hen King, and I decided to let them breed. Five eggs

were laid in a natural tree-trunk, and four hybrids were hatched and

reared, one, though free from rickets, being less well grown than the

others. The young birds are green with some red round the thighs,

and some pink on the under-surface of the tail. In shape they are

intermediate between their parents and very graceful, and when fully

adult should be birds of great beauty also (a great merit in hybrids),

infertile ! Like most hybrids they are good linguists, and it is amusing

to hear one of the two I have kept talking Barraband, like his father,

while his brother replies in his mother’s tongue !


The breeding results with Swifts have already been referred to in

another article. Two good young were reared by a pair which had an



