Correspondence.



39



cock was successfully raised. He had left the uest only a few days before a

second nest was built, and very soon the lieu was sitting again on three or

four eggs. I say “ the hen ” because with Green Cardinals the work of

incubation is left entirely to her. Of these, two were hatched, and the

young grew rapidly, needing many mealworms and cabbage caterpillars to

satisfy their enormous appetites. They were about five or six days old

when I noticed the child—as we called the young cock—standing on the

edge of the nest with a mealworm in his beak, and calling to the young just

as the parents did: a large mouth opened wide, and the mealworm was

dropped in. After this I frequently saw him feeding them, and the parent

birds would stand aside, if on the nest, to let him come and give his worm

or caterpillar.


Mr. Green, of Bournemouth, called one day and saw this done. He

was much interested, and said he could scarcely have believed it had he

not seen it.


At that time the child could not have been more than from six weeks

to two months old, and I think it was a very beautiful instance of un¬

selfishness in a little bird He thoroughly enjoyed a mealworm or cabbage

caterpillar himself, yet never thought of taking one until the young were

satisfied. M. D. Sharp.



JARDINE’S PARROT.


Pceocephalus gulielmi.


Sir,— Do you think it advisable to let a Parrot brood a hen’s egg ?

I have a Jardine’s Parrot which laid an egg some time ago, and which I took

away. Now, my man has given it a hen’s egg, and it is brooding it in the

bottom of the cage, where it has got a lot of chips of wood together, and

sits on it. I am afraid it may exhaust it, all the more so as it has got into

the habit of picking its breast bare for some two years past.


The cage is a large waggon-shaped one, about 5 feet high, 3J feet

deep, and 4^ feet wide. The bird was brought some nine years ago from

St. Paul de Loanda on the West Coast of Africa. It talks German in a

mumbling sort of way, but says very distinctly “Jacob.” It would be a

very handsome bird were it not for its breast and back being picked bare

of feathers. I saw two very good specimens at the Amsterdam Zoo., and

Jamrach had two about two years ago. I shall write to him for another, as

perhaps having a companion might wean it from its habit. It is a very

tame and affectionate bird, dances on its perch when it sees me, and gives a

postman’s knock against the wires or any sort of wood within its reach. It

will not touch boiled maize, but prefers hemp seed and sunflower seed to

any other. It has also half an apple every day, and now and then a dry

biscuit and cherries, and green peas in the pod, but it does not seem very

fond of grapes nor yet of dried figs.



