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wood inside being quite soft, large pieces falling in when touched ;

the most easily removed I thought it safer to take away, as I

feared the eggs or young might be smothered with the soft tinder.


I may here mention that the tree I have attempted to

describe is evidently of a very popular description amongst

Parrakeets for nesting purposes. The little hen Many-colour was

most envious, but she consoled herself later with an old barrel

with some decayed wood at the bottom from the same tree.


The aviary was shared with the Barnards by a pair of

Mealy Rosellas and a pair of Many-coloured Parrakeets. The

Barnards commenced house hunting very early in April during a

week of fine weather, and on April 8th the hen commenced to

sit, so they were not long in making up their minds. They were

fairly peaceable to the other birds, but constantly chased the

cock Mealy Rosella round and round the aviary. This was not

surprising, for he was a most interfering bird, and would have

undoubtedly spent a large part of his time in investigating the

Barnards’ new house, and was constantly driven away from the

entrance hole by the long-suffering cock Barnard.


The Many-colours they left alone, and the Mealy Rosella

(whose wife by the bye had died) persecuted the poor little pair,

not by actual pecks or attacks, but by constant worrying, until at

last I moved him into another aviary. The hen sat very closely,

as nearly as I could judge, three weeks, only coming off in the

evenings and early mornings for a little exercise ; the cock usually

sat just outside the hole and kept off the Mealy Rosella.


The cock had greatly improved in colouring, or else the

hen had become duller during the time she was sitting in the

dark tree ; there w 7 as no doubt now about the sexes, the cock

being quite brilliant in comparison to his wife.


They did not seem to mind the cold and wet at all, and

were simply fed on the usual seeds, as much as they liked to

take. There was plenty of flowering grass in the aviary, growing;

and they seemed to appreciate, with the Manv-colours, a plant of

flowering mustard, the flowers of which the) 7 stripped in pieces

and lay about everywhere.


The morning on which, I believe, the young hatched

(May 7th) there was a sharp frost, and ice on the birds’ drinking

water, storms of hail and sleet, and a N.W. wind.


On June 19th, a fine bright morning, after some wet cold

weather, the first young Barnard appeared ; he was seen clinging

to the top of the wire netting in the aviary, perfectly motionless.



