350



Lord Tavistock—Breeding Results for 1937



For a long time we had heartbreaking difficulties over the feeding

of the Coriphilus Lories—birds new to aviculture—and I had virtually

given them up in despair when my aviary attendant hit on the right

formula.


For several months both species did quite well on ordinary Lory

food—Dr. Allinson’s prepared as for infants and sweetened, together

with ripe apple, pear, and grapes. Then they began to die of!—the

Goupils especially—from anaemia and it was evident that digestive

trouble was the cause. We tried everything we could think of—varia¬

tions of Sunbird mixture, thin and normal—and still the casualties

went on. When the Goupils were reduced to four birds, one very ill

with the same complaint as the rest, I decided to present practically

all that I had left to Dr. Derscheid, who had had up till then better

luck than myself with the less uncommon species. It was just at this

moment we hit on the right food at last—it was Allinson’s and fruit

all right, but Allinson’s, when prepared as for other Lories, diluted

with its own volume of water ! On this mixture the sick Goupil recovered

and is the hen just referred to, and on it the other three birds I kept

have thriven. The Blues I sent to Dr. Derscheid have, I believe, done

well but the Goupil venture was disastrous, both being lost. This

account of the season’s breeding may close with a reference to a few

new birds of interest. Four lutino Nyassa Lovebirds were received

from Australia. They are handsome in colour—a good yellow with

orange faces and tail bars, but they appear deficient in stamina and

liable to minor ailments and the strain will be hard to establish.


Six of the rare and striking Green-winged King Parrakeets were

obtained from Mr. Shaw Mayer—an adult cock and five immature birds,

four of which alas ! have moulted out males while the sixth I am not

too sure of either ! They appear robust, hardy birds like the Australian

species when not kept in cramped quarters and on stale ground. Their

call notes resemble the Australian King’s but are weaker and higher

pitched. Mr. Shaw Mayer very kindly gave me a hen Princess Stephanie’s

Bird of Paradise as a mate for my fine cock Rothschild’s. The bird

was ill on arrival but soon recovered on a fresh air regime, with plenty

of mealworms and ripe pear. The Rothschild’s, unfortunately, has

just died in the moult after being nearly six years in captivity.



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