2l6



But it is rather common for warm tempered birds in captivity (too

much food and too little exercise) to want to go to nest again too soon, and

to want to get rid of their young prematurely. The male is usually the

aggressor.


I should watch closely and, if necessary, remove the male only. If

the female should find four young birds too much for her, remove two and

leave her two. Watch and see she does not lay unfertile eggs and sit on

them.


If compelled to remove any of the young from the mother, you

might try your former experiment and place them in a box cage in their

father’s aviary, but placing food in their own cage.


It would be very difficult to hand-rear the young if they would not

feed themselves. The way would be to chew up the food in your mouth,

and place the bill of the young bird between your lips, and let it feed from

the food inside.


But probably they are too old to be tame enough to feed from y'our

mouth, and probably they are old enough to feed themselves if you place

in their cage some of the following foodsBanana, boiled maize, boiled

rice, plain biscuit, spongecake, date (cut in small pieces), cut up raisins, fig,

pear, grapes, and any green food with which the parents were supplied ;

and crushed canary seed might be sprinkled over some of the softer food.

L,et there be a dish of crushed canary mixed with crumbled plain biscuit,

and on the top lay some pieces of date, raisin, fig, etc. Also supply spray

millet.



At page 171 of Notes on Cape Birds, you will find an account of the

breeding of Naiulays in confinement, and of the probable rearing of two

young birds. See also page 531 of The Bazaar, of the 5th October, 1892.


I am not sure to what species you refer under the names of Orange-

and Yellow-fronted Conure. Assuming that you mean either Petz’s

(Conurus canicularis) or the Golden-crowned (Half-moon) Conure (C. aureus), I

must admit that I cannot find any notice of the rearing of either species in

this country. But they have so often been imported, and in the past some¬

times in large numbers, especially the Half-moon, that it is more than

likely that they have been bred. Reginald Phieeipps.



