on Pennants parrakeets at Liberty.



53



to look for a nesting-site. After examining several trees ancl finding

them not to their taste, the cock became convinced that a rain-pipe

satisfied all the requirements of a nursery and spent several days

“ puffing ” his useless find with all the energy of a promoter of a

bogus mining company. Finally, I suppose his wife told him not

to be such an ass ; anyhow he left the rain-pipe and cleared out of

the neighbourhood altogether and I never saw him again. The hen

was caught some miles away, but she did not stay long when again

given her freedom.


I had the same bad luck with yet another lot. Most of

them stayed through the winter, one even returning after a three

months’ absence, hut in April two died of chills—goodness knows

why—and the rest completely vanished.


Then, at last, I got a steady old cock, of the type I have

mentioned as being the most promising for acclimatization purposes,

and having provided him with a mate I turned him out with a cut

wing in the usual way. The pair stayed well after they had moulted,

but in the autumn the hen was appropriated by a yellow-rumped

parrakeet, for the male pennant, though a very fine bird, was an

extremely poor fighter. He had two principal call-notes, one of

three syllables and one of four, which so took the fancy of a Port

Adelaide who was also flying at liberty, that he soon learned to

imitate them so accurately that it was impossible to tell by the

sound which bird was whistiing. The plagiarist Adelaide was not

however in the least grateful to his instructor in music and treated

him with scant courtesy when they happened to meet.


As the yellow-rump—a most savage and aggressive bird—

showed every intention of retaining his ill-gotten bride, I made

enquiries for another hen pennant. A cock was sent by mistake

and I would have returned him if I had not been attracted by his

peculiarly beautiful soft whistle, which was quite unlike any of the

ordinary calls of his species. He was also very steady and had a

curious line of blue feathers running down the centre of his breast,

so altogether he seemed worth keeping and keep him I did, which,

as it turned out in the end, was really lucky. When I let him out he

joined the first cock, and for a time the two were very good friends.


At length I succeeded in obtaining a genuine hen ; quite a



