Some Notes on Crimson-wing Parrakeets. 53 



on to the aviary. " The very thing I've waited for years!" 

 cried No. 3 and Hke a parched traveller in the desert, hurryinj^ 

 to a spring, he rushed joyfully to join battle with his companion. 

 For a few moments there was a good old row, but No. 3 soon 

 discovered that he had more than met his match and was glad 

 to retreat minus a few feathers. Next day he attacked No. .^ 

 in the aviary and got bitten in the foot. This rather disgusted 

 him with the place and he strayed about a mile away, where he 

 was caught and returned to me by the owner of the cottage he 

 entered when he became hungry. By this time I saw that my 

 vision of four Crimson-wings at liberty could not be realized. 

 The place was not large enough for such bad-tempered birds. 

 I feared that the Ring-necks, one of which was a lutino, would 

 desert if so continually pestered by No. 2, so I reluctantly caught 

 him up and sold No. 4. No. i and No. 3 have done much to 

 modify my opinion that Crimson-wings are hopeless birds at 

 liberty. Neither has strayed, nor gone down a chimney, and 

 while I cannot say tnat their behaviour to the 13 other parrakeets 

 at liberty has been exemplary, they have at least refrained from 

 conspicuous misdemeanours. From the point of view of 

 ornament, I cannot speak too highly of them, and I have got 

 more pleasure in watching them during their five months of 

 liberty, than they could give me during a lifetime in the aviary. 

 The two cocks occasionally associate together, but on the whole 

 they are not on very friendly terms, and are more often apart ; 

 frequently No. i is with the King, and ^.o. 3 with the hen. 

 Soon after they were released they went on one or two rather 

 long expeditions together and were seen two or three miles 

 from home, but of late they have seldom left the garden. 

 During part of the winter, when I had Barrabands at liberty, T 

 used to shut up as many birds as possible at nignt, as a protection 

 against Brown Owls, which nave a disastrous fondness for 

 Polytelis Parrakeets. The tame Crimson-wing always roosted 

 in the aviary, but No. i, together with an Alexandrine and a 

 Blue-bonnet, was smart enough to hnd his way out again 

 through the inward-pointing funnel of wire-netting which 

 puzzled less resourceful birds into believing tney were prisoners 

 for the nignt. 



In February I used, on fine days, to put a newly imported 

 hen Barraband out in a cage on the verandaii. i\o. i. whose 



