40 Psephoiiis P'anakecfs at iJhcriy. 



and a Kinij- thcv triok thcnisolvrs off ;ind were never seen 

 again! Cock Blue-lionnets. thou<;li they certainly dislike 

 their own kind less than other Parrakeets, are not, as a rule, 

 exactly what one would call friendly towards each other, so the 

 behaviour of these two was as unexpected as it was disgusting. 



My luck had not been good, but the winter before 

 last 1 determined to have yet another try and released several 

 Blue-bonnets, with cut wings, in a grass quadrangle in the 

 centre of the house. Some u'andered off as soon as they 

 could fly, but others were promising to stay well, when the 

 unlucky introduction of a spaniel puppy brought the experi- 

 ment to an untimely end. A few of the birds were killed and 

 the rest were so badly frightened that only three— two cock 

 P. xaiitliorrlioiis and a hen //ae/?iaforr/ioas~dec\ded to remain. 



In the spring I got another mate for the odd cock, and 

 turned her out with a cut wing. An unforseen complication 

 followed, for. before she was discovered by her intended mate, 

 a Yellow-bellied Parrakeet found her and promptly fell in 

 love with her. The Yellow-belly had been flying at liberty 

 for over a year, and had already paired with a hen Port 

 Adelaide bui his morals, I regret to say, were disgracefully lax, 

 and he ended by possessing C|uite a harem of wives, all of 

 which were of different species! His infatuation for the Blue- 

 Bonnets was as great as it was reprehensible, and he made 

 himself so insufferably unpleasant to the other cut-winged birds 

 in the same enclosure (which could not, of course, escape from 

 him), that I was compelled to remove the charmer and keep 

 her ini a cage until her wing had grown. I then released her 

 with the cock I intended her for, but it proved an unlucky 

 move as a few days later she strayed and took him with her. 



The other pair stayed and nested, but produced no 

 young and are still in the garden after more than a year of 

 liberty. In spite of their rather pronounced inclination to wan- 

 der Blu(^-t)onncts have one great advantagcy — they are never killed 

 by Owls. Either tliey take care to roost in a very safe place 

 where they are not seen, or, as I think is more likely, they 

 make things so unpleasant for the midnight assassin when he 

 seizei: them, that he drops them like a hot coal, and ever 

 afterwards leaves them severely alone. 



