Psephoius Parrakeets at Liberty. 9 



him with a substitute or hv prepared to lo3e him within a 

 few days. The substitute, it must be i:onfesscd, is <ircepted 

 promptly and gladly, but yet there is something very touch- 

 ing about the littl? birds' de\otioii. The tim? of year makes 

 no difference; only let him be depri\ed of the jKirlner from 

 whom, excepting when nesting, he was ne\er fo-r a moinent 

 se[)arated, and neith-vr the home which pleased liim so well 

 nor the food on which he is dependent, can keep him : a 

 few days ot una\ailing search and fruitless calling, .ind ilun 

 he starts on his last long journe\'. in C[uest of the missing- 

 one, a journey \\hich in winter, at any rate, is ended by 

 starvation and djath — for Red-rumps, unlike the larger broad- 

 tails never learn to keep themsehes entirely on natural food. 

 A single hen Pseplwtus generally stays a little longer than 

 a cock, but she, too, always goes in the end. 



After the loss of my hrst pair, I tried several other 

 Red -rumps but sooner or later a tragedy invariably occurred, 

 sometimes when I seemed just about to achieve success. 



Once a pair nested in a hole under the roof, but thes 

 were flooded out and the eggs spoiled. They tried again in 

 a difl'erent place, but about the time the eggs were due to 

 hatch, the (-o<-k coiUrac ted septic: fe\er through feeding in an 

 enclosure containing some di.ieased birds. His death caused 

 the hen to desert her eggs, and by the time I had procured 

 her a fresh mate, the moult had begun and all chances of 

 breeding were over for the season. During the winter an 

 Owl took the cock Red-Rump, and a successor met with the 

 same fate. The thrice-widowed hen wandered far aitd wide 

 in search of a companion and one day she ne\er came back. 



After so ntany failures 1 ni-arly decided to give tip Red- 

 rumps, but when a breeding pair wc'ie offeretl me some 

 month^ later. I resolved to haw one more {y\ . The cock 

 met with the u^ual end. and after his death the hen took up 

 with a Many-coloured Parrakeet {P. multicolor ) wi;li whom 

 she spent the winter. When Spring came round they nested, 

 but without result, and, as in any case 1 dul not want h\-brids, 

 1 caught up the Red-rump and ga\e the .Many-colour a mate 

 of his own species. In the autumn 1 got a cock Red-rump 

 and lei the hen out with lujn, and this tunc botii birds sur- 



