Lord Tavistock—Breeding Results for 1937



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Three new hen Kock Grass Parrakeets arrived, while a cock was

received from Keston. One of the hens died suddenly, with little

previous warning, from the complication of serious diseases which

often prove to be present in birds which almost up to the time of their

death look especially healthy !


Another hen got a chill in the autumn and died and the cock got

ill and has been caged for the winter. A third hen has been lent for

breeding.


A pair of Blue-winged Grass Parrakeets, bred by one of our

Continental members, were received from a foreign dealer. As his

premises are more than usually filthy the cock contracted eye disease

in one eye and so far the case has proved intractable even to perchloride

of mercury treatment that rarely fails.


My pair of Tahiti Blue Lories had to wait a long time before their

aviary was finished. These rare and interesting little birds are not

too easy to manage as many cocks are apt to turn savagely on their

hens with very little warning after living with them on apparently

affectionate terms and feeding them. I had to separate the couple

last winter on account of the cock’s misbehaviour, and in June put

them into adjoining aviaries, the hen sharing her compartment with

a hen Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot whom she did not molest. Only

when she seemed thoroughly anxious for his company and he was

feeding her through the wire did I allow them together and so far

all has gone well—far better indeed than I ever expected, for when I

gave them a grandfather-clock nest in the shelter they soon took to it

and laid two eggs, taking, it is interesting to note, turns in sitting.

A youngster is now more than half reared.


The even rarer and more beautiful Goupil’s Lory appears better-

tempered than its ally and we had no trouble with fighting at any

time. The hen of my pair is still very timid and rushes into her sleeping

box on the slightest alarm, and as she cannot fly too well owing to

cut wing feathers incompletely moulted I never dreamed she would

come into breeding condition. This, however, she did, not long after

the other Blues, but twice had trouble with a misshapen semi-softshelled

egg. I therefore separated her from her mate and hope that by next

year she will be in better fettle for nesting.



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