166 THE SPEAKING PABROTS. 



this can only be obtained for a short season, also oats, canary- 

 seed, millet, and grass seeds in fresh ears. Good soft fruits are 

 absolutely necessary for all lories, and Scheuba gives pieces of 

 the best figs ; but I consider good fully ripe cherries, pears, 

 apples or grapes, according to the season, as healthier, especially 

 sound, carefully-picked mountain ash or service berries. As a 

 green food, Scheuba recommends pine twigs and fresh ears of 

 corn, but willow twigs and the juicy stalks of the wild vine may 

 also be given ; for the winter I recommend tradescantia occa- 

 sionally. Scheuba gives all his lories, once or twice a week, 

 a drink of sugar and water ; in case of sickness he gives it several 

 times a day. He keeps the East Indian species in a temperature 

 of 65deg. to 70deg. F., and the Australian birds keep well 

 in 58deg. to 60deg. ; but heed must always be taken lest the 

 air be too dry, and, therefore, a vessel with water should be 

 placed on the cage, or a large wet sponge hung above it. It is 

 said to be better to surround the cage with large leafy plants, 

 which ought to be kept very damp ; but these must be so 

 arranged that the lories can never eat the leaves. Every two or 

 three weeks Scheuba syringes his lories with rum and water (1 

 part to 4) or white wine and water (1 part to 3), but both must 

 be of the best quality. They also like to bathe themselves, 

 but are not so eager in this respect as other parrots ; they like 

 it best when they can upset the bath, and then roll about in the 

 wet sand. Draughts and cold must be carefully avoided after the 

 bath. Dangerous influences, such as tobacco smoke, or touching 

 the feeding vessels with fingers soiled with snuff, &c., are more 

 injurious to lories than to any other kind of parrot. In truth, 

 not merely judicious but also affectionate treatment is necessary 

 to their well-being. Excitement or terror, pining for a care- 

 taker, or grief at neglect, may cause sickness or even death. 

 Some of them must certainly be considered bad screamers, but, 

 like other parrots, as soon as they make some progress in 

 training they gradually cease their cry. 



"As regards their talent for speech," writes Mr. Scheuba, 

 *'the most contradictory opinions prevail. One says the Black- 

 bonnet Lory is almost incapable of being taught, another says 

 the same of the Ceram Lory, and a third of the Lady Lory, and 

 so on ; in my opinion, considering the great talent of all the 

 species, even of the smaller ones, such as the Ornamental Lory, 

 &c., the development depends on the method used at the 

 beginning and on the idiosyncrasy of the bird. This, I can 



