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four fat young birds, with the quills showing black ends on their

heads, and their backs covered with quills with vivid green tips.


They were left absolutely alone for some time ; but finding

they did not fly I ventured to look in again, fortunately , for one

fully fledged young bird lay near the entrance, dead, with its

skull crushed by a heavy blow.


The three remaining birds flew in a few days, and were

carefully fed by the parents. They were taught at once to roost,

as the old birds did, in an upright hollow tree ; and it was pretty

to see the three young birds slowly lowering themselves into the

hollow, evidently hanging by their beaks inside, the old birds

occupying another limb of the same tree. They fitted in most

neatly ; and, as the tree is hollow to the bottom, with no foot¬

hold for perching, I can only conclude they hang by their beaks.

They are now fully grown, and exactly like the parents. I could

see no difference between the sexes in the young birds while in

the nest.



BREEDING THE RING-NECKED PARRAKEET IN

AN OUTDOOR AVIARY.


By G. C. Porter.


Having read that considerable success has been attained

by some aviculturists in breeding certain species of Parrakeets,

and being very interested in the Parrot family, I thought that I

would attempt to follow their example.


In January, 1900, I purchased a pair of Ring-necked

Parrakeets (Paltzornis torquata ) and placed them in an outdoor

aviary in April. The aviary is a lean-to, about a yard wide and

ten feet long, and was fitted with natural branches. I11 this I

suspended a four-and-a-half gallon barrel. The hen bird soon

began to persecute the cock in a most cruel manner, pulling out

most ot his feathers and worrying him from morning to night;

“ hen-pecked ” is a mild term to express her treatment of him.

O11 May 19th, she had a sharp attack of egg-binding, but

fortunately she dropped the egg on the bottom of the aviary.

On May 22nd, she laid an egg in the barrel, which she incubated

very assiduously, and brought off a fine young one on June 18th.

The hen did not exhibit any anxiety when I took it out of the

barrel for inspection.


Young Parrots, as Dr. Greene remarks, aie extremely ugly

little birds, the beak and head being of enormous size in com¬

parison with the rest of the body ; this one was 110 exception to



