fi8 The Hhiory of flic Biid^cri^ar. 



are at my disposal as a rontribution fin our 'own 

 language, and. as far as possible in the words of the writers 

 themselves) toVvardsthe complete history (as distinct from the 

 Natural llisloryi of this wcll-kiioun little Parrakect, which mnv 

 help to bridg'e the distance between the rare Museum speci- 

 mens of the first four decades of the last century and the 

 easily-bred, practically domesticated, thousands, if not millions, 

 of to-day. 



The earliest name applied to this bird was Pslttacas 

 iiiululaius. the I'ndulated Parrot. Other English names are 

 Grass-Parrakeet, Austrnl'an Grass-Parrakcet, Warbling Grass- 

 Parrakeet, Undulated Grass-Parrakeet, Scolloped Parrot, Sing- 

 ing Parrakeet, and as more popular and dealers' names we 

 find Zebra Parrakeet, Zebra Grass-Parrakeet, Australian Love- 

 bird, and (in Australia) Canary Parrot. The name "Budgeri- 

 gar" is a corruption of the native name " Batchcherrygah. " 

 Newton tells us in his Dictionary of Birds that this name 

 has been further corrupted into Beauregard I 



Latham in his General Synopsis of Birds (1781 to 

 1785) appears to be the first English writer to mention this 

 bird, and some thirty years later Wagler records as a rarity 

 a single specimen in the Museum of the Linnaean Society. 



Another ten years brings us to the beginning of what 

 may be called the avicultural history of the Budgerigar, tliat 

 is, its first importation by John Gould, the celebrated natural- 

 ist and bird-artist, who writes (vol. ii. p. 82) in his Hand- 

 book to the Birds of Australia, which was published in 1863: 



" ] believe I was one of the first who introduced living c.<amplcs 

 " lo this country, iKuing succeeded in brinf^ing home scx'cral on^ my 

 " relurn in 1S40. Since that period nearly every ship coming direct 

 " from the southern parts of Australia has added to the numbers of this 

 " bird in Englantl, and I have more than once seen more than two thou- 

 " sand at a time in a small room at a dealer's in Wapping. " 



"The l)ird has also bred here as readily as the Canary; still 

 " it is one which cannot be naturalised in a wild state, our climate not 

 " having the requisite degree f)f warmth, nor producing the kind of food 

 " suited to it." 



It will be noticed that Gould writes that he believes 

 he was one of the first. Whether any one had forestalled 



