On Nesting of the Malabar parrakeet.



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its greater relative popularly known as “Peggy whitethroat.” In

habits the two birds differ considerably: one never sees S. curruca

tiy upwards singing and then tumbling helter skelter downwards like

the greater whitethroat, nor have I ever known it to build its nest

in stinging-nettles under a hedge as S. cinerea often does : its eggs

are of course much smaller and much more boldly spotted, and their

number is more frequently restricted to four than is the case with

S cinerea ; thus out of thirteen nests of the latter species, which I

retained to illustrate variation in my collection of nests, eight have

five eggs, two have four and the other three are palpably incomplete

clutches.


I have seen the greater whitethroat in my garden, but I have

never known it to nest there ; it always prefers to build low down

and that would be fatal where cats abound; it was a real pleasure

to me to discover that the smaller bird had elected to make its home

with me. By the way I don’t see why Peggy should not follow its

example, she did once build and lay in a hedge at the end of my

former garden before I moved to Beckenham, but I tried to persuade

her to rear eggs she had not laid and she retired in disgust.



NESTING OF THE MALABAR

PARRAKEET.


Palceornis peristerodes.


By Dr. L. LOVELL-KEAYS.


The Malabar parrakeet belongs, of course, to the great class

of ring-necked parrakeets or genus Palaeornis and in common with

all the ring-necked, comes, as its name implies, from the old world.

The genus Palaeornis is not very interesting although, after the

African grey parrot, perhaps one of the best known. Every Tommy

Atkins brings back a “ poll-parrot ” for mother on his return from

India and even if he does not find the bird intei’esting it never fails

to excite admiration and a certain amount of envy of the (?) less

fortunate neighbours. All the ring-necked parrakeets are handsome

birds, but the Malabar is perhaps the most beautiful of all. The

exquisite greens and delicate tracery of the wing feathers must be



