50



Reviews.



second and concluding portion. Part I. dealt with some four

hundred species of the smaller foreign cage-birds, and the present

volume adds some six hundred more species, comprising the

larger birds, such as Parrots, Doves, Birds of Paradise, Wood¬

peckers, Starlings and Crows. The author appears to have in¬

cluded nearly every species imported up to the end of 1908, and

he believes the Doves to be complete up to the end of 1909.


We have been through the work carefully and have little

but praise to bestow upon it. The species appear in the strict

order of affinity in which they have been placed by systematic

ornithologists, and the account of each is as complete as possible,

both as regards its treatment in captivity and its wild life.


This work appeared first in the pages of Canary and Cage

Bird Life , a weekly journal, hence its production has been slow,

and some of the information is not quite up-to-date. For in¬

stance, on reading the account of the Rock Parrakeet ( Ncophema

petrophila') one is led to infer that the only pair definitely known

to have been imported were those mentioned by Russ as having

been purchased from Abrahams and sent to the Continent;

whereas in the spring of 1907 two pairs were imported by Messrs.

Payne and Wallace, who again obtained quite a number the

following year.


No mention is made of the rare parrots imported by Mr.

Goodfellow in the spring of 190S, namely Aprosmictus chloropterus ,

Charmosyna stellce, Charmosynopsis pulchella , Idypocharmosyna

placens and Cyclopsitta diophihalma. Moreover, the pair of so-

called Golden-shouldered Parrakeets obtained by Mrs. Johnstone

in 1902 (p. 230) have since been proved to have belonged to

another species, the Hooded Parrakeet (. Psepholus cucnllatus) of

North, to which all of the recently-imported “ Golden-shoulders”

are referable.


Regarding the food for Lories and Lorikeets in captivity,

the author mentions milk-sop as being recommended by those

who have kept these birds, and, while admitting that he himself

has had no experience with Lories in captivity, expresses a doubt

that “so utterly unnatural a food as milk-sop can be good for any

Parrot.” Nevertheless we have abundant evidence that Lories

and Lorikeets fed on milk-sop, especially when given with a



