232 



F0REIC4N BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



thighs dull bluish-green ; under tail-coverts greyish- 

 white ; beak horn colour ; legs brown ; iris of eye pale 

 brown. Female with the middle of the abdomen pale 

 yellow: "vent and under tail-coverts white; wing- 

 coverts greyish-green, tinged with blue : primary-coverts 

 and outer web of primaries dull blue." (Seth-Smith) ; 

 the beak is smaller and shorter than in the male. Hab., 

 South-Eastern and Southern Australia. 



Mr. Gould says that the Red-rump is found in the 

 interior of South-East Australia, being abundant over 

 the Liverpool plains and all open country northward 

 as far as explored ; also over similar tracts in Victoria 

 and South Australia ; it is seldom seen on the plains 

 round Adelaide ; it is more often seen on the ground 

 than in trees, and evidently prefers open grassy valleys 

 and naked crowns of hills to a wide and almost bound- 

 less plain. During winter it congregates in flocks of 

 from twenty to a hundred individuals, which trip 

 nimbly over the ground in search of grass and other 

 seeds ; frequently hundreds may be seen sitting in lines 

 along the whole length of a naked eucalyptus branch. 

 The Red-rump has a pleasing whistle, which almost 

 approaches a true song ; its five to six white eggs are 

 deposited in spouts and hollows of gum trees. 



Mr. A. Savage, who gives an interesting account of 

 the rearing of this species in the fifth volume of The 

 Avicii/fii'ol Mtiijazine. (pp. 28-31), mentions only seed 

 and chickweed as having been given to them, but a 

 little bread soaked in cold water, and then pressed 

 nearly dry, greatly assists all these Parrakeets in feed- 

 ing their young. The Red-rump is easily bred, and 

 Mr. Savage reared numbers in a large cage in his 

 garden at Rouen ; it has also been bred in this country 

 and in Germany, two, or even three, broods being reared 

 in a season. It is an easily tamed species, but must be 

 kept in an aviary or bird-room by itself, as it is ex- 

 tremely malicious towards smaller and weaker birds. 

 When breeding. Dr. Russ recommends that these birds 

 should be fed upon " egg-bread, ants' eggs, softened 

 rice, fruit, mealworms, green food, and mawseed," but 

 I consider most of these items as not only unnecessary 

 for a bird of this kind, but positively injurious. 



The first pair of this Parrakeet to reach the Gardens 

 at Regent's Park was purchased in 1851, and others 

 have since been added ; it is a very well-known species 

 amongst bird-lovers. 



The genus Neophema (Grass-Parrakeets) is charac- 

 terised by the four central tail-feathers being of equal 

 length. In their wild state they feed chiefly upon seeds 

 of various grasses, and in captivity canary, millet, and 

 green food are most suitable for them. They are grace- 

 ful birds, the sexes of which are much alike in 

 colouring. 



Bourke's Grass-Parr.4keet (Neophema bourkei). 



Above rufesoent brown ; anterior upper wing-coverts 

 and outer webs of flights violaceous blue ; outer upper 

 tail-coverts pale blue ; other coverts with pale edges ; 

 three outer tail-feathers white, excepting at the base, 

 which is brown on the inner, and blue on the outer, 

 web ; six middle feathers with the outer webs tinged 

 with blue, otherwise brown like the rest of the upper 

 surface : forehead and an eyebrow stripe of pale blue ; 

 a few feathers on the former, a stripe below the latter, 

 and a patch below the eyes, and on front of cheeks 

 whitish ; cheeks otherwise rosy, each feather with a 

 brown edge : feathers of breast brown edged with rose : 

 abdomen bright rose-pink ; flanks and under tail-coverts 

 pale blue ; beak dark horn colour ; feet brown ; irides 

 brown. Female rather smaller, with a much shorter 



beak, the terminal hook oiwhicu is tlucker ; she is also 

 duller and paler, with no blue frontal band. Hab., 

 " Interior of New South Wales, and of South Aus- 

 tralia." (Salvadori.) 



Mr. A. J. Campbell says of this bird (" Nests and 

 Eggs," p. 649) : " Of birds kept in captivity it has 

 been ascertained that the male bird assists in the task 

 of incubation, and in all probability this rule applies tO' 

 the other members of this beautiful genus. 



" With the original description of an egg, furnished 

 in the ' Catalogue ' of the Australian Museum, it is- 

 stated that the late jNIr. K. H. Bennett took a set of 

 these rare Parrakeets' eggs on August 20th, 1884, in 

 the interior of New South Wales. 



" Breeding season includes August and probably the 

 three or four following months." 



He thus describes the nidification : " Nest. — Within 

 a hole or hollow in a tree. Eggs. — Clutch, four, in some 

 instances probably five ; inclined to oval in shape ; tex- 

 ture of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour, pure white. 

 Dimensions in inches about .9 x -7." 



When Mr. Seth-Smith wrote his " Parrakeets " this 

 species was, and had been for about twenty years, prac- 

 tically unknown in the bird market, though previous to 

 that date a few pairs were imported. He describes a 

 pair in the possession of Mr. Groom, of Kentish Town, 

 which went to nest ; incubation lasting about seventeen 

 days ; the hen died about the time when the young 

 hatched, and apparently none were reared. In Germany 

 Dr. Russ appears to have been the first to breed it in 

 his bird-room, and afterwards various others were suc- 

 cessful. " Mr. Kessels, of Uccle, owned a pair for nine 

 years, which, in the first summer, bred six yovmg and 

 then every year several others. In 1877 from February 

 17th to September 7th nineteen young from five broods. 

 Clutch three to seven, usually five eggs : duration of 

 incubation twenty-two days ; nestling down pure w-hite : 

 young plumage similar to that of the adult female, but 

 duller in all its colours, and the young male, though it 

 has a blue frontal band, has it weak and narrow," 

 (\'ide Russ " Handbuch fiir Vogelliebhaber,'' p. 176). 



In 1904 Mr. W. Fasey became the owner of a pair of 

 this species, imported by Jamrach, and in 1905 the Rev. 

 Hubert D. Astley secured four specimens from a con- 

 signment of Australian birds on board a ship touching 

 at Genoa on its way to England ; he subsequently gave 

 an account of the species, illustrated by a coloured plate 

 drawn by himself, in The Avicultural Magazine. Second 

 Series, Vol, III., pp. 239-242. Mr. Astley says :' " The 

 male bird has a pretty warbling song, somewhat after 

 the warble of a Budgerigar, but softer, with no shrill 

 interludes, and the call note is also like a Budgerigar's, 

 but softer again. 



" Indeed, had I not had wiser and more learned 

 people to guide me, I should have thought that the 

 Bourke's and the Budgerigar were connected more 

 closely than in merely being Grass-Parrakeets. There 

 are the same scaly-looking feathers on the wings ; the 

 same manner of the male in sitting with his head close 

 to his mate's, and warbling for half-an-hour at a time : 

 the same way, too, of rapid fluttering of wings with 

 that whistling sound, whilst they hold to a perch with 

 their feet." 



Gould observes (" Handbook to the Birds of Aus 

 tralia," Vol. II.. p. 80) : " It is particularly interest- 

 ing, as exhibiting, in the crescentic form of the mark- 

 ings on the back, an approach to the style of colouring 

 observable in the single species of the genus Melopsit- 

 tacus (M. vvdiilaliis)." Why is it interesting, if there 

 is no affinity between the two birds ? When one con- 

 siders upon what comparatively slight external 



