The History of the Budgerigar. 203 



'■ for that attempt, but why my failure? I meant to find out. Wi'.hin 

 " a few miles of these aviariei I knew a Belgian fancier with 

 " a few of these birds, three pairs, I believe, but was neverthi'less h.uing 

 "fine success, breeding good colours and fine robust youngsters, as m iny 

 " as six in one nest. I visited him several times and had a good look 

 " round, seeking all the information possible. His birds were flying 

 " loose in quite a darkened out-house, the adult birds in one compart- 

 " ment, the young in another. Breeding boxes were permitted in the 

 " spring and summer and removeJ in the early autumn. Hence his success, 

 " and he admitted this was the only secret." 



The more recent history of the Blue Budgerigars is 

 not, I am afraid, a very cheerful one. Qu'te a large number 

 must have come to England, but as far as can be gathered 

 from the pages of the avicultural journals but comparatively 

 few have been bred The Zoo had one or a pair of M. 

 Pauvvel's birds and later purchased four more blue birds, 

 but these were young bad-coloured specimens, whicli did not 

 long survive. A glance through the back numbers of " Bird 

 Notes," enables us to give the following list of recent owners 

 of Blue Budgerigars, Astley, Beaty, Clare, Fasey, Hawke, 

 Poltimore, Sutton, Tavistock. [These aviculturists will, I trust, 

 pardon this bare list and omission of titles, sexial or other- 

 wise, but i am trusting to notes j-otted down son:e time ago]. 



There are no doubt also others wholm I have missed, 

 but anyhow v.ith all these chances the number of lilues bred, 

 as far as one can gather from what has been recorded and from 

 report, seems very small. Mr. Astley has been successful, 

 but not as successful as he would wish. Some of his bred in 

 a cage in the winter of 1913, an occurrence he records in 

 the "Avicultural Magazine," 1914, p. 178. Other records 

 of success which I find in "Bird Notes ' arc on p. 30, 191 3 

 (Pelham Sutton), and p. 62^ 1914 (^ Devon Aviculturist). 

 The last it is noted was bred from Green (blue-bred) parents. 



No doubt there are other successes, of which 1 know 



nothing, but nearly all the other references to this variety 



in recent numbers of ' Bird Notes " refer to failure, usually 

 due to infertile eggs. 



Such then is the present position of the Blue Budgerigar 

 and one can only hope that it is in reality a little rosier iii 

 outlook, than one would gather from the above, and that there 



