The History of the Budgerigar. 149 



" really able to determine with exactness when the change from the 

 " greenish-grey plumage of the vviLl bird to the light yellow of the culti- 

 " vated bird took place, or whether, indeed, several centuries were re- 

 " quired to bring it about — in the same way the Grass Parrakeet shows 

 " itselt to be peculiarly subject to the influences of development in breed- 

 ■■ ing. Less than fifty years have sufficed for it to appear before us. 

 " not only in varieties of colouring, but as a speaker. From the original 

 " variety we bred a yellowish-green, next a pure yellow was produced 

 " and afterwards a white variety— the last two had red eyes. Eventually 

 " a blue specimen was generated." 



In his larger work this author gives 1872 as the 

 date ol the first appearance of the yellow form, and describes 

 several varieties of this colour, one of which was a pure yellow 

 with red eyes, an albino, or rather as such are called now, 

 a lutino. Whether the white Budgerigars mentioned above 

 were really white or identical with these lutinos, 1 cannot 

 quite make out owing to my little acquaintance with (German. 

 Dr. Russ' style, too, is most difficult to follow and his exact 

 meaning often obscure, but I gather he had heard of real 

 albinos as well as the red-eyed Yellows. What became of 

 them? The Blue variety is also dealt with but without n.uch 

 real detail. 



Wiener, who no doubt was well acquainted with his 

 fellow-countryman's works, writes on the varieties as fo lows : 

 (Cassell, p. 435). 



" Of late years varieties of the Undulated Parrakeets h.ive l)fen 

 ""bred with increasing frequency. More or less pure yellow birds have 

 " been bred, mostly in Belgium. Since the first edition I have seen 

 " for the first time pure yellow Undulated Parrakeets bred by Mr. .Foscph 

 " Abrahams from yellow parent birds obtained, I believe from Belgium. 

 " Although these yellow l)ird-. were amongst dozens of green Budgerigars, 

 " and nothing prevented their cross-breeding, they seemed to have bred 

 " only among iliemselves. Even a blue variety has occurred, and at 

 " least one breeder has, through careful selection of stock, produced 

 " a breed of unusual size. Without doubt another ten ur twenty years 

 " will witness as great results of intelligent breeding of varieties of the 

 " Budgerigar as has been witnessed in the case of the Canary." 



Dr. W. T. (ireene, in his "Amateur's aviary." says 

 that it is stated that a blue variety has been produced more 

 than once, and of the yellow form writes as follows (p. 33). 



" Of late years, a breed of Yellow Budgerigars has been pro- 

 " duced , a pair of this colour, in which the characteristic undulation* 



