TO-DAY’S NATURE NOTE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 10

TO-DAY’S NATURE NOTE

Award For the Week - t That niueli interesting information may be gained by collecting insects and studying their habits was shown . in Monday's Nature note, entitled “The Cannibal Caterpillar.” To “1.D.” (Wanganui). the author of the observation, goes- this week's prize of .five shillings. Pigeon in the Hen-house A couple of weeks ago . I set a bantam hen on six eggs. In the lien-house is also kept a cock pigeon, which it was noticed went to the fowl’s nest and sat on the eggs when the bantam left it at feeding time. The pigeon was also observed, when he was let out for exercise, collecting straw and sticks. These lie.took into the hen-house, where he laid them around the sitting hen, interlacing tlie straw and considerably raising the sides of the nest. One morning, hearing a noise in the henhouse, I hurried to see what was causing it, thinking the pigeon might, be trying to get on the nest while the hen was still Ibero. I found that the commotion was caused by a light between the pigeon and the bantam rooster, which had intruded into the nest while the pigeon was Ibero. The fight ended in tlie rooster walking away quietly. Every time the pigeon gets a chance hp gets on tlie nest, lluffing himself out to cover the eggs. The behaviour of the pigeon seems rather unusual. — Roy Firth (Plimmerton).