Sydney Porter — The Cuban Comire



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birds should have such a bright colour scattered in such patchwork

fashion over the body without having it in certain restricted areas.

Perhaps they are assuming a green plumage for better protection.


The Conures when first they came were very wild and in very poor

plumage, now they are in very much better feather and much tamer,

but it will need a moult to do them justice. In size these birds are

somewhat larger than the Brown-throated Conure, perhaps a little

sturdier in build. The only difference I notice as regards the sex is

that one of them seems to have a much larger beak and flatter head

than the other. 1 thought that this was the hen, but a Grey-breasted

Parrakeet in the same aviary, which I feel sure is a hen, became very

friendly with this Conure, feeding it and preening its feathers, and it

would have killed the supposed cock Conure had I not been there in

time to save its life. These birds seem only to feed on apple and

sunflower-seed, all other fruit they refuse or eat very little of; they

soon get through a good-sized apple, but only eating about half and

wasting the other part.


They are very noisy birds, not that they screech, but chatter loudly

all day long, though the noise is not very unpleasant — not one that

neighbours would complain about. I regret to say that these Parrakeets

are very destructive to w T oodw r ork, which P am afraid is the family

failing of nearly all the Psittacidse, for although I supply them with

heaps of bark and partly decayed wood, they seem to prefer to try and

demolish the aviary. It is a strange thing to see these birds, quarrelling

violently and fighting with beak and claw, suddenly stop and commence

to preen each other's feathers and feed each other.


As is too often the case with Parrakeets brought from American

regions, these birds had their flight feathers cut and so were unable to

fly, and being very lively birds, always on the move, they sometimes

overbalanced when running along a branch, and came with a thud to

the floor. I was very much afraid that they w r ould do themselves

some internal injury, so I went into the country, fetched a car-load

of dry bracken from out of the woods by the roadside, and spread this

on the floor to help to break their fall. When they fell down they

stayed as if dazed for a minute or two, and then ran up the wires

and were as lively as ever in a very short time.



