The Excellent Szvainson^s Lorikeet. 175 



was raining-. The Swainson has been accused of being noisy 

 but. as a matter of fact, it does not often squawk when kept 

 intelligently, and its chatter is exceeding-ly amusing. It will 

 become, in most cases, very tame, although individuals vary 

 a great deal in this respect. The young play like puppies, 

 rolling each other over and pretending to bite. 



As to feeding, nothing could be simpler, in spite of all 

 that has been said on the subject. They thrive perfectly well 

 on milk sop and plenty of green food, particularly chick-weed 

 and lettuce. They like banana and apple, but can live without 

 them. They are. of course, brush-tongued parrots, and were 

 certainly never intended or evolved to live on a seed diet. No 

 doubt the Swainson is exceedingly accommodating in the matter 

 of food, for witness what Mr. A. F. Wiener wrote some years 

 ago : 



" T would advise to feed these liirds on a mixture of canary-seed, 

 " oats, milk'l, Indian corn, henip-sced. giving daily in addition either a 

 " piece of sponge-cake, a little sweetened boiled rice, a couple of dates 

 " or figs, or some ripe fresh fruit. Some writers on cage-birds have 

 " called Swainson's Lorikeet a verv delicate bird. This assertion is 

 " contradicted by the fact that I have kept these birds for years without 

 " diiificultv. I presented one bird of this kind to a friend in the autumn 

 " of 1870, and this bird lived over six years in my friend's study, laying 

 " several eggs, although kept singly. Besides canary-seed and maize, this 

 " Blue Mountain Lory was fed on a little sugar, with occasionally a morsel 

 " of raw beef scraped verv fine and mixed with scraped carrot. I have 

 " before me the names of four amateurs who have successfully bred this 

 " parrot." 



Poor Blue Mountain! How he must have loved the 

 scraped beef and carrot. I expect that what really happened 

 was that he was too gentlemanly to refuse it or that, possibly, 

 what he said about it was misunderstood. 



Of course, you may say that milk is an unnatural food 

 for any bird; as a matter of fact milk is an " unnatural " food 

 even for a mammal as soon as it is weaned, and I see no 

 theoretical reason in the world why a Lorikeet, with its peculiar 

 tongue, should not thrive upon such a superbly nutrient fluid 

 and perfect food as we know milk to be. At any rate, 

 Swainson's undoubtedly thrive on it, 



