( Some Colony Birds. 209 



said: "Father, if you like him, he is yours." It was of 

 no use my protesting that I should be depriving his children 

 of their pet. ""Oh, there are plenty more: sometimes we get 

 whole flocks of them." 



Melanoccplialus is seven inches in lengtli, tJie tail, as 

 is the case of all parrots (using the word now in its limited 

 signification j being short. The head is large and the body 

 sturdy. The back, wings, and tail are a vivid grass green; 

 the breast is snowy white; the sides, thighs and vent, as 

 well as the neck, a beautiful orange; the cheeks, yellow 

 ticked with white; the crown of the head, and the beak are 

 black; tlie bare skin around the eyes is also black, so that 

 the bird seems to be wearing a cap slouched over the eyes; 

 but the eyes are prominent, being red. The cere is indigo, 

 and, there is a patch of dark green at the cornersof the 

 the mouth. The bastard wing is blue; the green of the back, 

 at. the nape of the neck, is also blue; and the black cap is 

 edged with the same colour. The under-wing coverts are 

 brick-red and the primaries are tipped with biack; the feet 

 are, black also. I may remark that those in captivity, are 

 seldom clean-looking, for the bird is always getting into 

 mischief and requires frequent bathing; but he repays all 

 the. trouble, for then he is in truth an object of beauty : 

 fhe feathers having the appearance of clean wool, as the back 

 and the wings of satin. 



A friend of mine had a pair of these beautiful birds; 

 but they had to be kept m a cage for, content with their own 

 company, they would, through mutual jealousy, allow no inter- 

 ference, biting savagely if approached, and laughing all the 

 time. I dubbed them at once "!the heavenly twins," after 

 the hero and hcromc in Sarah Grand's famous novel, for they 

 were up t<* all sorts of mischief, and were perfect acrobats, 

 twisting around their perches, swinging, and putting their 

 heads between their legs, leaping up, dam ing and whistling. 

 If. one of them came to the bars of the cage and was shewn 

 any attention, the other would dash at it in jealous rage and 

 squabbling wtnild go on foi some time i)ef<)re they were 

 reconciled aLiain. 



