138 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



Perfect Lorikeet [Psitteuteles eiiteles). 



Above green ; tail-f«atheTS yeUowish-green on inner 

 webs ; head yellowish-olivei ; under-eurface yellowish- 

 green ; flights below blaokish, yellow towards base of 

 inner webs; beak yellow; feet dark. Female not dif- 

 ferentiated. Hab., "Timor. Floree. Wetter, Lettie, 

 Babbar, and Timor-Laut." (Salvador!.) 



I have not come across any information respecting the 

 wild life of this almost uniformly-coloured little Lori- 

 keet, but it probably has much the same habit* as its 

 allies. 



A pair were deposited' in the Ijondon Zoological Gar- 

 dens in 1896, and Mr. Setli-Smith reports them ae still 

 living (in a cage) in ilay, 1902, in the most perfect 

 health and condition. 



Red-crowned or Varied Lorikeet 

 (Ptilosclera versicolor). 



Green, streaked with yellowish-green ; crown and 

 lores red ; ear-coverts and a band at back of head 

 yellowish ; cheeks and a, collar on the nape bluish ; 

 breast vinous red, brighter at the sides ; flights below 

 blackish, with yellowish inner webs; tail below 

 yellowish ; beak red ; cere and naked orbital area 

 greenish- white ; feet pale ashy-grey ; irides brown. 

 Female not differentiated. Hab., Northern and 

 Western Australia. Gould savs of this species (" Hand- 

 book," Vol. II., pp. 98, 99): "It is particularly 

 abundant at Port Essington, where its suctorial mode 

 of feeding leads it, like the other members of the 

 genus, to frequent the flowery Euccilypti. Gilbert in- 

 formed me that it ' congregates in immense numbers ; 

 and when a flock is on the wing their movements are 

 so regular and simultaneous it might easily be mis- 

 taken for a cloud passing rapidly along, were it not for 

 the utterance of the usual piercing scream, which is fre- 

 quently so loud as to be almost deafening. They feed 

 on the topmost branches of the Euccly-pti and 

 Melahucce.' " 



Campbell (" Nests and Eggs," p. 595) says : " These 

 Lorikeets are said to breed in the hollow limbs of trees 

 on the margin of the Margaret River, North-west 

 Australia." The above seems to be all that is known 

 respecting the wild life, e.xcepting that Mr. Fred L. 

 Berney records the fact that he saw two broods, three 

 and four respectively, that were taken from their nests, 

 hollow spouts in trees, about September 15. 



About the middle of November, 1902, about nine 

 pairs of this pretty Lorikeet came into Mr. Hamlyn's 

 hands, and were rapidly distributed over the country ; 

 one supposed pair went to the Zoological Gardens, 

 another to Mr. R. Phillipps, a third to Mr. Seth-Smith, 

 a fourth apparently to Mr. E. J. Brook (unless he 

 obtained his from Mr. Seth-Smith), a fifth to Mr. 

 Hawkins, and a single specimen seems to have been 

 purchased for exhibition by Miss Rosa Little, since 

 only one specimen is recorded as having been shown 

 by her. I saw Mr. Seth-Smith's specimens on several 

 occasions. The pair at the Gardens went to nest in 

 1906, but whether with satisfactory results I do not 

 know. An account of the species, with a coloured 

 plate, was published by Jlr. Phillipps in Tfie Arirul- 

 tural Mofjazint, Second Series, ^'ol. I., pp. 287-291. 



Mu.=KY Lorikeet (Glossopsittacus concinnus). 

 The prevailing cxalour, as usual, is grass-green; the 

 forehead, lores, and ear-coverts red ; back of head 

 bluish ; nape and upper back brownish-olive ; back and 

 sides of neck mottled with yellow ; inner webs of flights 

 sooty, below Diackish-grey ; inner webs of lateral tail- 



feathers yellowish, red at base ; beak blackish-brown ; 

 feet ashy-grey ; iris " brownish-yellow to yellowish-red " 

 (Russ) ; "buff, surrounded by a narrow circle of 

 yellow" (Gould); naked skin encircling eye described 

 as brownish. Female not differentiated. Hab., Aus- 

 tralia, from Queensland to South Australia and Tas- 

 mania. 



Gould says : (" Handbook to the Birds of Australia," 

 Vol. II., pp. 100, 101) : "Like every other species of 

 Lorikeet, the present bird is always to be found upon 

 the Eucalypti, whose blossoms afford it a never-failing- 

 supply of honey, one or other of the numerous species 

 of that tribe of trees being in flower at all seasons of 

 the year. It is stationary in New South Wales, but I 

 am not certain that it is so in the more southern country 

 of Tasmania, where it is known by the name of th& 

 Musk-Parrakeet from the peculiar odour it emits. 



" It is a noisy species, and with its screeching note 

 keeps up a perpetual din around the trees in which it 

 is located. During its search for honey it creeps among 

 the leaves and smaller branches in the most extra- 

 ordinary manner, hanging and clinging about them in 

 every jxissible variety of position. It is so excessively 

 tame that it is very difficult to drive it from the trees, 

 or even from any particular branch. Although usually 

 associated in flocks, it appears to be mated in pairs, 

 which at all times keep together during flight, and 

 settle side by side when the heat of the sun prompts 

 them to shelter themselves under the shade of the 

 more redundantly-leaved branches. 



" The eggs, which are dirty white and two in num- 

 ber, are of a rounded form, lin. in length and |in. in 

 breadth. Those I obtained were taken from a hole in 

 a large Eucalyptus growing on the Liverpool range." 



In captivity this species is said, by those who hav<v 

 kept it, to be very subject to fits, not only in England, 

 but also in its native land. Though formerly rare in 

 the market, of late years it has been imported in some- 

 numbers. It first reached the London Zoological 

 Gardens in 1869. 



CHAPTER IX. 



COCKATOOS AND COCKATIEL 



{Cacaiuidce). 



A very natural group of birds which, with one excep- 

 tion, are peculiar to the Australian region ; they are- 

 not found further to the east than the Solomon Islands. 

 They are characterised by an ossified orbital ring, a 

 very deep beak, with the upper mandible ustially much- 

 compressed, and the terminal hook generally almost 

 vertical {Licmetis is an exception) and with its under 

 surface roughened like a file ; the head is always more- 

 or less crested. 



In captivity I have found the most suitable food for 

 Cockatoos to consist of maize, oats, wheat, dari, hemp 

 or sunflower, nuts in winter, peas in the pod in summer, 

 apple, raw carrot, lettuce, or other wholesome un- 

 cooked green food, and plain dry biscuit. A little- 

 boiled maize does not hurt occasionally, but should not 

 (I think) be given as a regular article of diet. Wood- 

 boring grubs might be given to Black Cockatoos. Some 

 of these birds talk fairly well, but all, when first im- 

 ported, are liable to scream abominably; when acclima- 

 tised, however, many of them lose this objectionable 

 habit and make very amiable pets. 



Cockatiels do best upon a diet of canary, with a littli- 

 hemp and a few oats ; also chickweed, groundsel and 



