27G The Breeding of a Hybrid Lorikeet. 



monthi. ago, since which I aehnit I have given the very little 

 spare time at my dis]>ooal to the pleasures usually found at 

 a seaside resort, and 1 believe even my friend, the Editor, 

 will forgive me, now the obligation is at last fulfilled. 



It was on Nov. 29th, 1911, when my thoughts Avere far 

 away from inspecting nests, even with the hopes of linding 

 any agreeable surprises, that my Belgian boy informed me that 

 two of the Lorikeets in No. 37 aviary were constantly visit- 

 ing one of the logs. The occupants of this aviary at that time 

 were a true pair of Dark-throated Lorikeets (T. nigrigularis), 

 one male T. ricbritorques, and one female T. tiigrigalari-s. 

 Keenly interested, I immediately examined the said log, and 

 was greatly surprised to find two eggs. The question now arose 

 as to which pair of the birds tiiey belonged? Also how long 

 had they been incubating? 



Observation during the next few days soon decided the 

 first point, but, I had to wait until the 22nd for the elucida- 

 tion of the last query, when I found one young bird in the 

 log. I was delighted with this find, although I had little hopes 

 of rearing it, because the weather was bitteiiy cold and the 

 nest of a Lorikeet is not the cosiest cot imaginable. 1 always 

 kept a shallow layer of dry sawdust at the bottom of each 

 log, and this constituted the whole of the comforts it had, ex-- 

 cepting when snugly covered by the parent bird. On the 

 26th I found the bird progressing favourably, and according 

 to my notes of that day, "nicely covered with down." My 

 next entry on the progress of this interesting youngster was 

 January 3rd, 1912, "Young Hybrid Lorikeet still bonny, 

 but now almost without down, and still no signs of any fea- 

 thers." Poor little chap, methinks, weather bitterly cold, nature 

 certainly did not endow you with the necessary covering to 

 be hatched out in winter in this bleak climate, and my com- 

 miserations were well founded, for I found the little fellow 

 dead within the next three days.— Thus ended the first chapter 

 in the attempt of the parent birds to reproduce their kind— - 

 "something attempted, someth'ig done," but not enough for 

 me. One needs to be philosophical to be an aviculturist. 



Weeks passed and this particular disappointment had 

 been forgotten, when my Belgian boy again informed me the 

 old birds were again frequenting the log, and on examination 



