amily offers a striking contrast with parrots: in the
nine-year Report thirteen species are recorded as having bred, and,
what is more noticeable, only two were seen to couple without any
result. Since the above date every annual Report gives many cases of
various pigeons breeding. The two magnificent crowned pigeons (_Goura
coronata_ and _Victoriae_) produced hybrids; nevertheless, of the
former species more than a dozen birds were kept, as I am informed by
Mr. Crawfurd, in a park at Penang, under a perfectly well-adapted
climate, but never once bred. The _Columba migratoria_ in its native
country, North America, invariably lays two eggs, but in Lord Derby's
menagerie never more than one. The same fact has been observed with the
_C. leucocephala_.[366]

Gallinaceous birds of many genera likewise show an eminent capacity for
breeding under captivity. This is particularly the case with pheasants;
yet our English species seldom lays more than ten eggs in confinement;
whilst from eighteen to twenty is the usual number in the wild
state.[367] With the Gallinaceae, as with all other orders, there are
marked and {156} inexplicable exceptions in regard to the fertility of
certain species and genera under confinement. Although many trials have
been made with the common partridge, it has rarely bred, even when
reared in large aviaries; and the hen will never hatch her own
eggs.[368] The American tribe of Guans or Cracidae are tamed with
remarkable ease, but are very shy breeders in this country;[369] but
with care various species were formerly made to breed rather freely in
Holland.[370] Birds of this tribe are often kept in a perfectly tamed
condition in their native country by the Indians, but they never
breed.[371] It might have been expected that grouse from their habits
of life would not have bred in captivity, more especially as they are
said soon to languish and die.[372] But many cases are recorded of
their breeding: the capercailzie (_Tetrao urogallus_) has bred in the
Zoological Gardens; it breeds without much difficulty when confined in
Norway, and in Russia five successive generations have been reared:
_Tetrao tetrix_ has likewise bred in Norway; _T. Scoticus_ in Ireland;
_T. umbellus_ at Lord Derby's; and _T. cupido_ in North America.

It is scarcely possible to imagine a greater cha