192 Notes of the Season 



aiul turned the lien into ;in ;i\ iary with my old euek. A fortni_i;ht 

 later lie innrdered her and some weeks afterwards tlie secontl 

 cock died —apparently from pure cussedness, as nothing could 

 be found tlie matter with him. About the same time a hen 

 Many-colour ( I'sc/^Jiofiis niiillicolor ) was killed by her Red- 

 rump ( I'sepliotiis !iaeiiiato)iotHs) inate. and a cock Bourke's 

 (Neoplieiiu! buiirkel) died of injuries apparently inflicted by 

 ffyin:..;' ai^ainst the wire netting.* 



Voiw pairs of (irass Parrakeets were turned out 

 on the eve of a severe thunderstorm, which so terrified 

 them that two killed themselves during" the night in 

 the same way as the Bourke's. Bitter experience has 

 taught me that it is unsafe to keep any parrakeet of the genus 

 NeoplieDia in an aviary unprotected with a lining of string 

 netting.* to prevent suicide. 



As a palliative to the above tale of woe I have a few 

 breeding successes to recount and some failures. 



Hooded Parrakeets (Psephotus dissimilis). As my 

 pairs will persist in sticking to Australian seasons, generally 

 dying egg-bound in October, and moulting all the spring and 

 summer, I put them in a warm indoor flight at the end of Septem- 

 ber 1916. One hen had a weak leg and I thought her useless, but 

 as not infrequently happens with a crippled bird, she proved 

 better than 1 anticipated, laying and incubating a full clutch of 

 eggs, which unhappily proved infertile. The other hen got no 

 further than inspecting the nest-box. 



Guiana Parrotlets (Fsitiaeiila gitianensis). A pair of 

 this species reared three young, in a cage, up to the age of three 

 weeks and then murdered the lot. A second nest proved a 

 failure. This species is now nesting again. 



A hen Blue-faced Lorikeet (T. hae))iatodus) paired 

 to a Swainson's (Trichoglossus szvainsoni) laid two eggs, both 

 of which were infertile. 



Having learned by experience that it is almost useless to 

 expect young parrakeets unless the male birds, at any rate, have 

 had abundance of flying exercise during the whole of the winter 



* A thick screen of hraiiclies would l)e hetter, as there would be consid- 

 erable danger of the Ijirds gelling entangled in the string netting. — Ed. 



