41



NOTES on BREEDING the MADAGASCAR LOVE BIRD,


(Agapornis ca?ia J,


AND OTHER BIRDS.


By F. W. Oates.


I don’t remember seeing a case of breeding the Mada¬

gascar Love bird in the Magazine. I suppose the fact is not

worth recording, the birds are so common and, according to

some authorities, “ easily breed.” That they are both common

and cheap, I fully agree with ; as to being easy to breed, I am

quite of an opposite opinion. I have kept them for years, and,

until this season, have never been able to rear any. However,

at last I have been fortunate enough to have a fine nest of four

come off, and under rather remarkable and unusual conditions,

too. I had fully decided the hen was dead, not having seen her

for weeks (seven or eight, I believe) ; and the cock, the unfaithful

little wretch, had forsaken her early in the Spring, and taken up

with a hen Bluewing, since which I have not seen him pay the

Madagascar the slightest attention ; so how she has arranged

matters, to rear them by herself, and at the same time to keep

out of sight, is a mystery.


Among other birds that have bred with me this season is

my old pair of Mealy Rosellas. Other years one nest has

sufficed, though this year they have gone one better, and had

two. Certainly the first clutch proved clear, but they made

amends in the second by rearing three grand youngters. Hitherto

they have never had more than two eggs per nest.


Another season, I hope to be able to record a nest of Blue

Bonnets. Of Cutthroats, Zebras, etc., I have quite a flock : with

me they breed like the proverbial mouse. I have had several

nests of Double-banded Finches, not reared ; only the other day

I found two newly-hatched young thrown out of a nest. My

Parrot Finches have all proved cocks; it is ver}’ disappointing,

after one buys several birds, thinking you are bound to have a

pair out of the lot, to find them all of one sex.


I had hopes of having a nest of Woodlarks last Spring.

The hen made a nest in a slight depression under one of the

bushes in the outer aviary, but that terrible scourge to avi-

culturists, egg-binding, put a stop to all further proceedings on

her part in that direction.


Like the Parrot-finches, my Diamond Doves are all males.

There do not seem to have been very many imported the last



