52



The Marquis of Tavistock,



PENNANTS’ PARRAKEETS AT LIBERTY.


By the Marquis of Tavistock.


The sturdy, handsome broadtail, which has received the

rather unsuitable scientific title of Platycercus elegans —a name far

moi’e appropriate to the trim little Stanley—is, of all the true

Platycerci, the most vexatious to keep at liberty. Other parrakeets,

it is true, stray as badly, but the Pennant seems to take a peculiarly

fiendish pleasure in raising your hopes to the highest possible pitch

before he elects to desert you. Still, with perseverance, some

measure of success may be attained, the great secret with Pen¬

nants, as with rosellas, being to start with cocks which have been

many years in captivity and have passed through the taming ordeal

of the show bench.


My first Pennants were a lot of three young birds in patchy

red and green plumage and were said to be acclimatized. I lost two

almost at once from chills, probably through keeping them in an

aviary with a glass roof; a glass roof is an abomination, causing

the temperature to vary to an extraordinary degree. The survivor

was released full-winged (it was winter at the time) and strayed

almost at once. It was caught and returned to me, stayed a fort¬

night, went away again and three months later was picked up dead

in a wood a few miles off. That it should have lived so long was

rather remarkable, for Pennants can seldom do without artificial

food when first released, although they ultimately become quite

independent even during the cold months of the year.


I next bought a pair of adult bii'ds in fine condition. I let

the cock out full-winged, but neglected to put his mate in a place

where he could easily see her, consequently I lost him the first day.

Then I got four pairs of newly-imported adults and turned them

into an enclosure with cut wings. Half of them left as soon as

they could fly, leaving two cocks and two hens behind. One of the

latter nearly drowned herself in a pond and we put her in a cage to

recover; being apparently bent on suicide she got her head through

the bars and “ hanged herself by the neck until she was dead.” The

odd cock mated with a Port Adelaide parrakeet, but disappeared in

the spring. The pair stayed through the winter and in March began



