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Practical Bird-Keeping .— Correspondence.


Quaker Parrakeet, which builds a roofed nest ; whilst Love-Birds

( Agapo??iis ) use twigs, which they carry into a nesting-box or

log.


For Budgerigars cocoa-nut husks do well, but it is advisable

to either cleanse or destroy these after a while, for fear of red

mite, etc. within. In any case, the nesting-boxes must be roomy

enough for the young birds to keep in until their due time arrives

for flying, otherwise they may crawl out and fall down with

disastrous results, but the boxes must not be so deep that they

cannot get out at all.


Parrots and Parrakeets will often take a year or more, and

even three or four before they nest, so that if any aviculturists

have a pair of birds about whom they are beginning to feel dis¬

heartened in this respect, let them be patient and they may be

finally rewarded.



PRACTICAL BIRD-KEEPING.—CORRESPONDENCE.



Sir, —I have just lost a pair of year-old Black-shouldered Peafowl,

evidently from lack of power to moult. Both were a mass of pin feathers

and very few had pushed through.


They were hatched here just a year ago, and had always been well

and strong. They have, however, never had free range, having been kept

in not large aviaries—about ioft. by 20ft.


What treatment would you have recommended for these birds ? We

have another brood now', two months old, and we hope to learn how to

safely carry them through. J. E. Rothweiu,.


The following 1 eply was sent to Mr. Rothzvell :—


I think that there is no doubt that Mr. Rotliwell’s Peafowd want a

more generous diet during the moult. He does not say how they have been

fed, but possibly on grain alone. I should advise an addition to their usual

allowance of grain (which ought to be varied, and not always the same),

some meal (barley for choice), scalded with a little Spratt’s meal, as a good

addition to their grain, when moulting; also a little chopped up cooked

meat, boiled potato, raisins or other cheap fruit, earthworms.


I do not keep Peafowl, but I find it is a good thing to give such things

to the more delicate pheasants and Tragopans wdien they are moulting.

Of course the object is not to merely mature the moult—an easy operation;

but to help them to grow the best feathers possible.


W. H. ST. Quintin.



