232 More Notes uii Szcaiiisoii's Lorikeets. 



water. Xotwitlistandiii!^' this varied diet one chick died at 

 abmit 7 days, and the survivor, at the a,^e of 5 weeks, had no 

 down feathers or qniHs. and seemed to make very little growth. 

 Air. E. ]. Brook, to whom 1 wrote at the time, sus^'.gested the 

 addition of cane snt^ar, which I proceeded to give at the rate 

 of -' or 3 lumps daily — sugar was scarce at this time as mv 

 readers will remember. 



1 think this change of diet produced a little improvement 

 for at the age of 9 weeks the quills began to show, and a week 

 later there was a suggestion of colour about the head and wings. 

 This extraordinary young bird remained in the nest-box for 16 

 weeks, and could not fly when he first emerged into the world. 

 At the end of another three weeks, however, he was almost as 

 large as his parents, and could fly and scream with the best of 

 Lorikeets. He shortly afterwards went to Miss Peddie-Waddell. 



This ai)]:)eared to be my birds' hnal effort for 1918, and as 

 winter api)roached they were transferred once more to the mixed 

 aviary already mentioned, together with several species 

 of Parrakeets. This aviary consists of a large shelter con- 

 taining numerous nest-boxes for sleeping and breeding 

 purposes, and an outer flight where f had unknowingly left one 

 or two boxes from the summer. This fact was brought to mv 

 notice on January ist, 1919. by the Lorikeets' noisy behaviour, 

 and looking into the box in question I again found two eggs 

 and on the i8th two chicks had made their appearance. Those 

 aviculturists who keep notes of weather conditions will be able 

 to verify the statement that about this date we were getting 

 hard frosts every night and the milk sop provided was hard 

 frozen each morning; in addition to this the nest-box had no 

 sort of ])rotection from the weather, as the flight is made \\\) of 

 wire-netting on every side. 



Under the circumstances I had very little hope of rearing 

 the young, and made no alteration in the diet of the parents, 

 which for economy's sake I had lately reduced to ground-rice 

 boiled for a few minutes with fresh cows' milk and sweetened 

 with honey-sugar. 



