164 M. Amsler — Breeding of the King Parrakcet


officious. On the 13th of that month I saw the hen very busy on the

ground, scraping a hole with her beak and feet, all the time assisted by

the cock, who fussed around freely and did nothing at all. I examined

their " scrape " later in the day ; it was a very rough affair, about 9 inches

in diameter and some 3 inches deep, and contained a number of stones,

which I removed. Next day there were again a number of stones in

the " scrape ", and this time I left them there — they were collected and

carried to the nest by the hen.


By 18th May all traces of the " scrape '* had disappeared, and I found

an egg on the ground near where it had existed. I put this egg in the

coco-nut husk, which happened to be near by. On the 20th another

egg was laid in exactly the same place as the first. This was evidently

a spot to the hen's liking, so I made a hollow and firm hole in the ground,

surrounded it by four bricks placed on edge, and placed the two eggs

in the middle. On the 21st I was glad to see that a third egg had been

added in the artificial nest. On the 23rd the fourth egg was laid, and

on that day I covered the nest by a sort of tunnel made of galvanized

iron bent into a semicircle, and kept in position by wooden pegs

driven into the ground ; the hen could enter from either end.

Fortunately, all this in no way disturbed her, and she laid two more

eggs on the 25th and 27th, making a total number of six, of which I

had to remove one as it was cracked.


At first the hen sat very unsteadily, hut 1 should say that she began

incubation with the fourth egg. The eggs varied a good deal in size

and shape, were very granular in texture, and two, at least, might be

described as nodular, quite unlike any other eggs I have ever seen ; this

may, of course, be an exceptional feature, due to some defect in the

female bird. After the first few days the hen incubated very well,

but owing to the shape of the earth bottom of the nest the eggs rolled

about a good deal, and I frequently saw one or more eggs which were

not properly covered when watching the hen on her nest. On several

occasions I deepened the hole and tried to make it more to the hen's

liking, but the earth was inclined to crumble away at the edges and to

fill up the hollow. Each time I looked in I found and removed a number

of pebbles, evidently put in either by the cock or by the hen on her

return to her nest ; I much feared that these would break the eggs and so



