i66 Breeding uf Cntnsun-ivinged Farrakeet. 



actually released, but one proved too spiteful and had to be 

 got rid of. The remaining two were caught up at tne begin- 

 ning of March and provided with mates in different aviaries. 

 One of the females was a young bird, imported last autumn, 

 jMul I was not very surprised that she did not come into breeding 

 condition, but moulted early in the summer instead, without, I 

 am glad to say, donning male attire, after the all too common 

 custom of innnature " hens " of this species. The other 1 

 had had two years. The first summer she laid several eggs, 

 but entirely refused to sit or look at a nest-box. Last year 

 she did not even lay. 



This year, acting on the advice of a friend in Australia, 

 1 provded her with a new type of nest. According to my 

 friend. Crimson-wings in their native haunts frequently enter a 

 hole in a tree thirty or forty feet up, but the actual nest is usually 

 almost on a level with the ground, the bird descending to the 

 very bottom of the hollow interior. I therefore obtained a 

 section of a hollow tree trunk about 6ft. in length, set it up on 

 end, made the inside climbable with a strip of wire netting, 

 fixed a scooped-out block of wood on the bottom for tne actual 

 nest, fastened a " lid " on the top and made the entrance hole 

 immediately beneath the lid, with a piece of cork bark under it 

 for the birds to cling to. 



It might be wise, at this ])oint, to caution readers against 

 following the example of an aviculturist who imitated my nest 

 hut forgot my warning about the climbable interior. x xi& result 

 was that the hen's first entrance of the log was also her last, for 

 she perished of starvation at the bottom ! 



The new home fortunately met with the Crimson-wings' 

 approval. The cock, who worried very little at the Iolo of his 

 liberty, soon began to examine it, and condescended to that 

 brief, lukewarm and reluctant friendship with his wife, which in 

 Crimson-wing circles seems to be the nearest approach to 

 married love. By the end of April the hen was also visiting 

 the log, and in the first days of May she began to sit and was 

 very seldom seen. At the end of the month a faint squeak- 



ing announced the arrival of a young one, and the cock began 

 to spend a good deal of time inside the nest, even roosting 

 there now and then. About the middle of July the youngster 

 emerged, and an examination of the log revealed one addled 



