Allen Silver—A West Country Collection



1 ‘21



I noticed a Cuban Amazon, an excellent Grey, the rare Lesson's

Amazon, a very tame Rosy Cockatoo, and an interesting mottled

Yellow-fronted Amazon. Apart from being very tame and a talker,

this bird’s body plumage was regularly mottled with alternate green

and yellow feathers. 1 There were also Red-collared and Swainson’s

Lorikeets, Peach and Red-faced Lovebirds, Meyer’s, Senegal, and

Muller’s Parrots, Yellow-headed Eops, Jendaya Conures (a remarkably

tame and beautiful pair), Pennant, Stanley, and Rosella Broadtails,

Cockatiels, and White-winged Parrakeets, Blue Grosbeaks, with a dozen

or so Cardinals, making an excellent show: six or eight Virginian cocks

give some colour with Popes and Redcrests. A nice singing Dyal and

a Mocking-bird contributed music to the collection. The lazy denizens

of the aviary were a pair of Cuban Trogons, and red as a colour was again

noticeable in the shape of a batch of Scarlet Tanagers. Besides these

there were noticeable such birds as Yellow-fronted Fruitsuckers,

Javan Hill Mynahs, and a pair of Bifasciated Sunbirds (=the nectar-

feeders). These have been lately augmented by Yellow-winged

Sugar-birds. The small seed-eaters were pretty numerous, and such

birds as Grey and Green Singing and Alario Finches, Cordons, Orange-

cheeks, Fire and Lavender Finches, Grey and Dufresnes Waxbills,

Gouldians, Masked, Longtailed, Grass, Wydahs, Combasous, Diamond,

Black Seed, and Cuban Finches were well to the fore.


Mrs. Burgess feeds her birds in the orthodox fashion, and for a large

collection her death-rate has been so far low ; on the whole her birds

thrive remarkably well, because she does not buy rough or cheap

birds, but pays reasonable prices for selected material. Among the

several Senegal Parrots in her collection I noticed a very fine bird with

tomato-red lower underparts. I have seen several such Senegals

(not colour-fed), but have not possessed one, although 1 have

had a number of these Parrots. 1 have not had occasion to look

up a collection of Senegal Parrot skins for comparison, but it

has just occurred to me whether these red-breasted birds are

the males, as the mating of Senegals with yellow underparts has

jn the instances I have in mind always proved abortive. Perhaps



1 [Probably a “ contrafeito ”, a bird artificially coloured yellow by rubbing into

the skin the blood of the South American frog Dendrobates tinctorius.—G. It.]



