The Blue-crowned hanging Parrot.



269



following day to remove birds, cage and all, to a warm room in the

Sanatorium. On their return the old birds promptly went into

the box to satisfy themselves that their chicks were still there and

flourishing.


The following morning, when the keeper climbed into their

large cage, the two parent birds immediately disappeared into the

nesting-box, which was just what we wanted them to do. A cloth

was clapped over the entrance hole and the box taken down and

carried carefully away. The cage, which is about six feet high, was

then transferred with its stand to the motor and conveyed to the

Sanatorium. The nest-box with its contents was then hung in its

usual position in the cage and the cloth removed. The birds did not

seem to resent the shifting about in the least, hut went on feeding

their young, which emerged from the nest five weeks later, in perfect

plumage and condition, their colour almost as bright as those of the

adults, but with blackish bills. They are two beauties, taking rather

more after the Red-collared than Swainson’s lorikeet.


They are now back in the Parrot House, none the worse for

their travels.*



THE BLUE-CROWNED HANGING PARROT


(Loriculus galgulus).


By E. G. B. Meade-Waldo.


I have never been a parrot keeper, but in 1906 my son brought

home from Singapore two of the above-named hanging parrots. They

were then quite similar in plumage, but one was considerably smaller

than the other and had flesh-coloured feet; both were apparently

young birds, and the smaller one was evidently so. They were

kept in a cage for some time and given a sop of NestlAs milk

with water, biscuit soaked in it, also sugar-cane, apple, and bird-seed,

canary, etc. When the weather got warmer they were put into a


* [The above was written in March last, the incident described having occurred

in the early part of February. The young birds are now exhibited in a

large cage next to that of their parents in the Parrot House.—D. S.-S.]



