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one happy day I found a young bird crouching on the floor. Its

mother certainly did not seem so proud of it as I should have

expected, or as I was myself; and, after a week or two, I did wonder

whether it was the usual thing for a young Budgerigar to be so

long learning to fly, and whether it ought to scuttle away into

corners and tumble about as it did ! It was very tiny too, and

rather short of feathers, but it was the first, and I was not

disposed to be critical.


It was not followed by another, and it never learned to fly,

but when it died I learned what “ French moult ” meant, and

had advanced another step towards knowledge. Before the next

Spring, I emptied and disinfected my aviary, and, having lost all

faith in my authority, decided to experiment for myself, which I

ought to have done long before.


Having learned that Budgerigars in their native land are

gregarious, I acted on the hint, and in February turned out

five pairs of aviary bred birds from a good breeding strain. By

this time, although determined to keep Budgerigars until they

did rear some young ones, I had ceased to expect success, and

was surprised and puzzled about two months later to find a

stranger in the aviary. It could not surely be a young one at

last, for it was so big and plump, and such a splendid flier, but it

certainly had black eyes, and no yellow cap ! Next day, however,

it was outside again with two companions, and in the course of

a week or so, twelve grand young birds had made their appear¬

ance—and I was happy at last. After this the youngsters came so

thick and fast that they overflowed into my other aviaries until

all were over-crowded, and still they came !


When the first dozen young ones had moulted and

assumed their adult plumage, I returned five pairs to the aviary

and they also nested. These five original and five young pairs

reared one hundred and four young birds between one February

and the next. How they managed it I have never been able to

understand ; my success was too precious for me to imperil it by

even a peep into the nests—I just kept quiet, supplying food,

and removing youngsters, and left the birds to manage the rest

themselves; and they certainly justified my confidence in

them.


Having reared so many young birds, the difficult}' was to

dispose of them all; but after a good deal of trouble I succeeded

in doing so, retaining only two pairs of the old ones, who

promptly gave up nesting seriously and only played at it.



