BREEDING 93

is an attraction whlch the ducklings cannot resist and they devour them readily. Mealworms are also dropped on to a tray of starter crumbs. While the duckling is catching the mealworms, a certain amount of the dry food is taken up and soon the young birds eat the starter without any help from live food.

The first ten days are the most critical. Once t h i s stage has been passed, the ducklings are much like any other waterfowl to rear despite their slower growth rate.

PRODUCTS MENTIONED I N TEXT Chick Starter Crumbs: manufactured by BOCM, Silcock of Basingstoke, Hampshire, Great Britain. Turkey Master Breeder’s Pellets: manufactured by BOCM, Silcock of Basingstoke.

REFERENCE JOHNSTONE, s. T. (1972): Slimbridge: Curator’s Report for 1971. Wildfoowf 23: 135-136.

Manuscript submitted 13 March 1975

An unusually prolific breeding season in the Bornean great argus pheasant Argusianus argus grayi

SHERYL GILBERT’ & GUY A. GREENWELL2 ‘Biological Technician, and eCurutor, Birds Unit, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DCzooog, USA

In November I972 the National Zoo acquired a pair of Bornean great argus pheasants Argusianus argusgrayi. It was one of five pairs captured from the wild in 1969 and owned by the private breeder, Charles Sivelle of Huntington, Long Island - the first of the subspecies to be imported into the United States.

The birds are accommodated in an L-shaped comer aviary (Fig. I), well planted with Bambusia, Howea (Kentia palm) and Ficus shrubs to simulate the dense tropical forest of their natural habitat. An area approximately 3 x 1.5 m beside the pool has been left open for the d’s use as display arena. a s , the 0.6 m wide gravelled path and the concrete rim of the pool which he has also adopted are a particularly satisfactory choice of courting ground as visitors are able to view him at close range through the stretched piano wire cage front. Lighting is provided by four 150 W incandescent bulbs and four 40 W fluorescent lamps timed to give IZ hours of light daily.

Eighteen other birds of ten species share the aviary with the argus pheasants. The roulrouls Rolhlus roulroul and King quail Coturnix chinensis, the other galliforms, offer little competition for ground space on account of their relatively small

T’ 1

56- I , ’

Fig. I. Ground plan of exhibit. a. Js display area. b. pool. c. cage front. d. logs. Measurements in metres.

size. Nor have the Turquoisine parrots Neophema pulchella, Orangeheaded ground thrushes Zoo- thera citrina, White-crowned pigeons Cofumba leucocephala, Emerald doves Chalcophaps indica, Pekin robins Leiothrix lutea, Silver-eared mesias L. argentauris, Indian pittas Pitta brachyura or

94 B R E E D I N G

Strawberry finches Amandava amandava punicea created any problems of coexistence.

During 1972 one of the pairs which had re- mained at the Sivelle aviaries laid four eggs in two clutches, the resulting young being the first of the subspecies reared in this country. Our hatchings were the second. Records indicate that two clutches - rarely three - of two eggs each per season are the norm for the species in captivity (Beebe, 1936; Delacour, 1951; Lint, 1965; Anon,

On j and 6 March 1973, barely three months after she was introduced to her new quarters, the National Zoo $! laid her first clutch of two. Although she made some attempt at buildmg a nest, she showed no interest in incubation and the eggs were removed for artificial hatching. The): were incubated in a Lyons glass-sided, forced-air cabinet incubator, but for later clutches we havc used a Petersime Model 4

1969).

forced-air, self-turning unit, as employed in commercial hatcheries. The machme is operated at a temperature of 37.65'~ (dry bulb) and a humidity of 30-30.56'~ (wet bulb reading). The eggs are rotated in an arc of go' every two hours.

In the next 12 months the $! laid a total of 3 0 eggs in 15 clutches (Table I). All but two clutches consisted of two eggs, the remainder of one and three respectively. The minimum interval between clutches was two weeks; the maximum a month. The greatest time lapse between eggs of the same clutch was five days, but most often the interval between first and second eggs was only 48 hours. In one instance two eggs were found on the same day. It was not until March 1974. when the 8 began to moult, that the 9 stopped laying.

Twenty-six of the 30 eggs (86.7%) were fertile. Incubation varied between 23-25 days,

CLUTCH DATE LAID DATE HATCHED INCUBATION PERIOD (days) SEX

I 3 Mar 1973 dead in shell I 6 Mar 2 23 Mar 2 25 Mar 3 19 Apr 3 21 Apr 4 22 May 4 23 Mav 4 23 May S 8 June 5 1 3 June 6 8 July 7 28 July 7 3 0 July 8 17 Aug 8 18 Aug 9 13 Sep 9 16 Sep

I 0 8 Oct 1 0 I 0 Oct 11 I Nov I 1 2 Nov I 2 21 Nov I2 23 Nov I 3 12 Dec I 3 18 Dec

14 I I Jan 15 I Feb 1 5 4 Feb

14 9 Jail 1974

30 Mar 1973 16 Apr 18 Apr 1 3 May 1s May 14 June I 4 June I June 2 J d v 7 July I Aug

22 Aug dead in shell I O Sep dead in shell dead in shell dead in shell infertile infertile 24 Nov 26 Nov 1 5 Dec 17 Dec

11 Jan 2 Feb 4 Feb

25 Feb infertile

s Jan 1974

24 24 24 24 24 23

23 24 24 24 2s

23

22

23 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24

d d 0 0 ? d d 6 no info ? died 6 Aug P

died 18 Nov

6 Q 5 died 17 Dec (accident) ? ? 0 0 died 31 Aug

Table I. Results of the first breeding season in a pair of Bomean great argus pheasants Argusianus argus grayi at the National Zoological Park, Washington.

B R E E D I N G 95

with 24 the most frequent period. Altogether 21

young hatched, a hatchability rate of 80.8%. On hatching the chicks are left in the hatcher

tray for about 24 hours to dry off before transfer to starter brooders. These are 66 x 33 x 33 cm plywood boxes painted with vinyl enamel and divided into two cubical units by a removable plywood partition. Each unit has a 6-35mm (tin) mesh woven wire floor above a metal dropping pan, both of which slide out for easy cleaning. Heating is supplied by incandescent bulbs, recessed into 12.7 cm square metal hoods mounted over the rear of the brooder. By varying the strength of the bulb from 60 to IOO W and exchanging a wiremesh lid for one of ply- wood, the temperature can be regulated between 32-2-35Oc. As the chicks grow larger, the brooder size can be doubled by removing the partition.

Being large, sturdy and fast growing birds, the argus chicks seldom remain in the starter brooder for longer than ten days. They need little prompting to begin feeding. Initial diet consists of Purina Game Bird Startena, sprinkled with a little hard-boiled egg yolk, a vitamin- mineral powder supplement (Vionate) and oyster shell flour. They are also relatively placid in temperament, so much so that we occasionally use them as companions and mentors for the highly nervous roulroul chicks. The roulrouls, normally beak fed by the parents, learn to feed more readily from such companions.

As they outgrow the starter brooders, the young argus are placed in regular chick battery brooders, 91 x 61 x 23 cm high and also with a removable 12.7 mm (+ in) mesh floor suspended 3.8 cm above a removable metal dropping pan. The standard metal heating unit at the rear of each brooder is adjusted to give a shut-off temperature of 35Oc at 5 cm above the floor screen. The usual denim curtain enclosing the heated space is tied back at one comer to facilitate access and inspection.

At three weeks the chicks are transferred from Startena to Game Bird Finisher, and to Main- tenance Chow at six weeks of age. These transi- tions are made gradually, by mixing the old and new diets for the first three days. The Main- tenance Chow, which is pelleted, is first partially crushed to resemble the Finisher. Pellets are added to the crushed feed in increasing quantities over a tenday period until completely accepted.

Chopped kale is offered every other day once the chicks have been moved to the battery brooders. At six weeks brooder heat is no longer necessary, room temperature being maintained at 2z-z0c.

weight in 0

./ i * /

age i n days

Fig. 2. Growth curve of three Bornean great argus pheasant Argusianuc argus gruyi chicks hatched at the National Zoological Park, Washington.

Fig. 2 shows the average gain in weight over the first 25 days for a sample of three chicks. Growth is slow compared to that of temperate zone pheasants, but fairly uniform. The two groups of chicks, argus and roulroul, grow up together quite peacefully sharing the same off exhlbit aviaries. Argus $8 begin to display at less than one month of age; the call of the adult $ is first heard at about 12 months, short and soft at the beginning, then progressively louder. If caged with other species he will quite often display to them, irrespective of the other bird's size or sex.

At three months the young birds receive the standard aviary diet, composed of Maintenance Chow, hen scratch, Trout Chow, chopped fruit, bread and rmlk, chopped hard-boiled eggs and chopped kale. All food is sprinkled with Vionate, and oyster shell flour or calcium lactate.

Seventeen young have so far attained adult- hood, with almost twice as many ?$! as 88 surviving. Eleven have been placed in other collections and more will be transferred shortly. After a prolonged moult beginning in March 1974, the J was again calling by June, and early in July the $2 laid the first egg of her second season.

96 B R E E D I N G

During the remainder of 1974 she laid five clutches totalhg ten eggs, eight of which hatched and seven of which were raised. This pair has already made a substantial contribution towards establishing a captive population of the Bornean subspecies in the United States.

P R O D U C T S MENTIONED I N THE TEXT Lyons model A-475 Glass Incubator: manufactured by Lyons Rural Electric Co., 2075 Moore Street, San Diego, California 92100, USA. Petersime Model 4 Self-turning Incubator: manufactured by Petersime Incubator Co., Gettysburg, Ohio 45328, USA. Purina Game Bird Startena, Game Bird Finisher, Maintenance Chow and Trout Chow: all manufac-

tured by Ralston Purina Co., St Louis, Missouri 63188, USA. Vionate: vitamin-mineral powder supplement, manu- factured by E. R. Squibb & Sons Inc., Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.

REFERENCES ANON (1969): Magnificent argus pheasant. Game Bird BreedersGaz. 18(2): 38-41. BEEBE, w. (1936): Pheasants, their fives and homes. I. London: Hale. DFLACOUR, J. (1951): Thepheasanfs ofthe world. London: Country Life Ltd. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. L I ~ . K. c. (1965): Courtship and display -great argus pheasant. Zoonooz 38 (3) :5-7.

Manuscript submitted 22 April 1975

Second generation breeding of the Grey turaco

at Busch Bird Park, Houston Corythaixoides c. concolor

RONALD A. Y O U N G Director, Busch Bird Park, Houston, Texas 77029, USA

On 23 January 1972 three Grey turacos Cory- thaixoides c. concolor were introduced into the Free Flight Aviary at Busch Bird Park in Houston. This exhlbit, which is in the shape of a star, covers about 3035 ma ground area and is some 20-23 m high at its central peak. It is heavily planted with tropical and subtr0pica.I trees and shrubs to simulate a South American ramforest habitat, and is traversed by public walks at elevated and ground level. A waterfall and gunite stream recirculate through one section. Although the cage is not heated in any way, the 3-6m high gunite perimeter wall and the lush planting afford a certain amount of natural protection.

While the three birds could not at first be sexed with any certainty, we did know that we had a pair as the previous owners, Houston Zoo, had hatched a chick in 1970 which survived a week. As it turned out, we had one 8 and two 99. In mid-March 1972 we were much surprised to find thrce eggs laid on the ledge of one of the steel supports directly above a public entrance. The ‘nest’ was not discovered until the clutch

was already under incubation, and on 6 April the first egg hatched. The second followed two days later but the chick disappeared that evening, and the third egg vanished some time before hatching.

The surviving chick, covered with thick grey down, was fed by regurgitation. At three weeks, still unable to fly, it left the nest site to scramble about in the shrubbery, struggling awkwardly from branch to branch rather like the ‘quadrupedal’ young hoatzin Opisthocomus hoarin. We banded it with a coloured plastic band for easy observation and permitted the parents to continue rearing in the open exhlbit. At the time the aviary contained about 50 other species, including four species of turaco.

The same pair nested again the spring of 1973 in a wooden box provided for them, but the eggs were destroyed by other birds. In July of the following year the breeding 0 escaped from the aviary and was killed during an electrical storm. At about t h s period the 6 was constantly noted courting and feeding both the second 9 and the offspring, and on 15 October all three