64 PuACTiCAr, Bird-Kkeping. 



From Maich to October, my Parrakeets usually have an 

 abundance of green food put fresh every day into the aviaries, 

 and a nice bunch into each cage. Where there are Budgerigars 

 and such like, a large bouquet of grasses, etc. can be wired 

 round a stout stick, which can be fixed in a flower pot. If the 

 bunches are wired round the stems, it enables the birds to pull 

 at what they want, as if it was actually growing, and at the same 

 time prevents the stuff from being scattered untidily about the 

 aviary. I believe my young Bourke's Parrakeets, etc. are fed 

 almost entirely upon half digested green food and grass seeds, 

 and they usually leave the nest in the pink of condition. After 

 all, it is their natural food, and consequently most necessary. 



And Parrots need water to drink, care being taken that the 

 water vessels are well scrubbed out, and even scalded ; for one 

 sometimes sees them with a nasty slime at the bottom, which 

 must assist in generating microbes of some kind or another. 



Parrots, like all birds, need wing exercise to keep them 

 health}' and robust, although one sees individuals living in cages 

 year in and year out, who are never able to stretch and flap their 

 wings : and Parrots are as swift and agile on the wing as any other 

 birds. I have an especially tame Queen Alexandra Parrakeet 

 {Spathopterus alexa7idrcE, as it is dubbed !) which is kept in a cage, 

 but is let out at least twice a week for a fly in a large room. To 

 see that bird swoop round and round for two or three minutes at 

 a lime, shrieking with joy and exuberance of spirits, is delightful. 

 If possible the larger Parrots and Cockatoos should be trained to 

 come on the hand, or at any rate on a stick, when they can be 

 waved up and down to make them flap their wings. They will 

 soon learn what they are intended to do, and look out for these 

 gymnastics. 



I know a lover of Parrots, who always takes Macaws and 

 Amazons for walks in the garden. They are chained to perches, 

 and after removing them from the latter, he will put them on the 

 ground, holding their chains, and allow them to walk in the 

 wet grass, or else sit on an old stone wall, where they sun them- 

 selves and chew mortar. 



A Double-fronted Amazon which I have, loves to be taken 

 on a personally-conducted tour like this, and when he is put on 



