202 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIAEY. 



the trees. The breeding season is from March to June ; 

 the careless nests are formed in hollow trees (such as 

 acacias) at a height of from fifteen to thirty feet from 

 the ground, and produce from three to four half-naked 

 young, which are an unusual time in developing. 



Capt. Boyd Alexander, wi-iting on the " Birds of the 

 Gold Coast" {The Ibis. 1902, p. 570), says:— "We 

 ol»erved it near Busu in Decemiber in very large flocks, 

 frequenting the guinea-corn plantations, the corn being 

 then nearly ripe." 



At p. 437, the soft parts are thus described from 

 specimens obtained on the White Nile by Jl. McD. 

 Hawker: — "Iris pale straw-colour; bill red, blackish 

 at tip and on lower mandible; legs and feet grey." 



My friend, Mr. James Houalen, of SydenJi;i.m. "had a 

 pair of this species committed to his 'care by Major, 

 then Lieut. Horsbrugh, and consequently I had an 

 oppoirtunity of examining them. They appeared to me 

 silightly smaller than the Indian bird .ind somewhat less 

 noisy : the size and colouring of the beak would alone 

 serve to distinguish them at a glance from P. torquaia. 

 and it is to me surpi-ising that the two .should have 

 been confounded, I should describe the upper mandible 

 as crimson, blackish at tip, and more or less suffused 

 with blackish to about the middle (as if the beak had 

 been dipped into an ink-pot so as to duM the crmison 

 on the distal half), the lower mandible also suffused 

 with blackish, but to the base. In fact, the beak is 

 altogether dingier than that of the Indian species. 



This species fir.-^t reached the London Zoological 

 Gardens in 1861, 



Blossom-headed Paeeakeet {Pahrornis cyanocephalu). 



The cock bird, when adult, is of a brilliant green 

 colour, the head ha^ng a beautiful peach-like colooiin-. 

 red, shaded with blue, at the back and the nape of the 

 neck, and less distinc-tly on the cheeks. There is a black 

 stripe from the lower mandible, which is continued as a 

 collar round the neck, and rs followed by a yellowish 

 rmg. The lesser wiing-coverts are marked with" a bright 

 cinnamon reddish patch ; the axillaries and under wing- 

 coverts are of a glaucous or verditer blue colour. The 

 two central tail-feathers are blue, tipped with white, 

 and the remainder gi-een, tipped with yellow. The 

 uppra- mandible is waxy yellow, varying to orange, and 

 the lower mandible black or dusky. The hen has no 

 back collar or red patcli on the wing-coverts ; the top, 

 back, and sides of the head are lilacine, somewliat 

 browner on the sides, and bounded by a better defined 

 yeaiow collar. The it lack collar is' wanting, Hab,, 

 Himalayas, the northern, western, and southern portion 

 of Central India, and Ceylon, 



Mr. Gould eays that the Plum or " Blossom-headed " 

 Parrateet prefers jungly districts to the more open 

 parts of the countrj', bivt occurs in all the more richly- 

 wooded, cultivated dtstrids. Its flight is very swift. 

 It breeds in the jungle in holes of trees from Decembtn- 

 to March, and usually lays four white eggs. The Plum- 

 head as veiy destructive to grain crops, and my brother 

 found it a perfect ]>est in his Indian Garden," where a 

 flock would alight uiwn a row of peas and shell the pod-i 

 almost as quickly as they could be done hy hand : 

 directly they appeared, all available missiles were 

 hurled at them, sometimes more effectively injuring 

 the peas than even the destructive Parrakeets, 



Writing on the " Birds of Lucknow " (The Thix, 1903, 

 p. 61), Mr, W, Jesse says: — "It is more abundant in 

 the 'ra.iiis,' from which I fancy that it must be locally 

 migi-atory. I have never taken the egffs, but Reid (:o't 

 four fresh si>ecimens in a pipal-tree on the 15th of 



April, which averaged .98 in. bj' .80 in. The ci-y of this 

 bird is less harsh and far more pleasing than that of 

 P. lorquatui." 



The Blossom-head is one of the best known and most 

 freely imported of all Parrots, and has, at tunos, been 

 sold at a veo-y cheap rate. It was bred by Dr, Russ ;n 

 his buxlroom in 1872 ; it first reached' the London 

 /ioologicai Gardens in 1862. 



Rose-headed Paeeakeet [Palceornis rosa). 



Both old and young bh-ds are disLitigudshable at the 

 ficst glance fix>m the Indian Blossom-head, the jnale 

 when adujlt having its head of a pearly rose-coloiu- 

 shading into lavender on the crown, the black colour 

 not succeeded by a blue-green stripe as in the Indian 

 species ; the back aru:! under part^ are less yellow, th,i 

 rmnp bluer ; the pittch on the wmg is browner, and the 

 central tail-feathers aie tipped with yellow. 



The female has the head more ashy (less blue) ; the 

 yellow collar indistmct at the sides ; the green oodotir 

 above and below purer, and the wing maiked with a 

 Ted-brown patch as in the male. 



The young when they leave the nest neaa-ly resemble 

 the female, but are a little duiler ; both scoies show the 

 wing-patch distinctly. Hab., "Sikhim, Dacca, Eastern 

 Bengal, A.ssam, Upper Biirmah, and eastwards as far 

 as Cochin Cliina, and Southern China," (Salvadori,)* 

 In Himie's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 

 Second Edition, Vol. Ill,, p, 88, we read : — " Writing 

 of the Eastern Rose-headed Paa-oqiiet in Pegu, Mr, 

 Gates remarks : — ' Nest wiith four eggs well incubated in 

 a hole of a tree about ,six feet from the ground. The 

 hole was a foot deep, very roomy, buit the entrance, 

 wliich had been eulaijjed by the bird, was only large 

 enough to admit its body. The eggs were laid on the 

 bare wood. Although the sitting bird was poked at 

 with a stick, and it took fully half an hour to enlarge the 

 hole in order to take the eggs, yet the bird could not hi 

 induced to quit the nest, land eventually had to be 

 dragged out. When disturbed with the stick the female 

 made a noi.'-e like the hissing of a snake. These eggs 

 were taken o-t the 22nd February, 



" ' On the 22nd March two fresih eggs were taken from 

 another hole, and on the 16th March another nest was 

 found also with two eggs well incubated, 



" ' Tile eggs are, of course, pure white, rather gilossy 

 when fi-esh, but becoming dull with incubation. The 

 eggs measuire fiom ,97 to .95 in length, and from .85 lo 

 .8 in breadth.'" (Salvadori refers this- note to P. rosa, 

 a.nd probably that is so. though P. roaa is quoted as 

 d'stinct in the same work.) 



Hums ("Nests and Eggs," Vol. III., pp. 87, 88) 

 Kppe:irs to have transposed the two species of Blossoan- 

 headed Pan-akeets, but the habits of the two are so 

 identical, both at liberty and in captivity, that it is of 

 little consequence, 



I purchased two pairs in young plumage about 1893, 

 but I soon discovered that both sexes of one padr had 

 been pinioned, and (before many weeks) these died, Thf 

 other pair aequired their full adult phumage in the 

 autumn, and in 1894 I was successful in breeding with 

 them, one hen bird leaving the nesting-log and being 

 reared to maturity. It was decidedly larger than its 

 mother, and she, having twTsted her tail in the neiSt 

 when pitting, looked a veiy inferior bird. 

 In the following spring tlie young ibird attacked her 



* Salvadori gives Southei-n China on the autJiorit.v of Consul 

 Swinhoe, but exprresre his belfef that the two specim'ens from 

 Chefoo a.nd Camton are both ca.ge-birde, and may hava been 

 broug-ht to China. 



