Parrots. 237 



from confinement. They must be kept in pairs, being 

 most affectionate birds, constantly pluming and caress- 

 ing each other, and the male keeps up a continual low 

 warble, to which the hen listens with great attention, 

 They occasionally screech, but their ordinary voice is 

 sweet, low, and melodious. They should be fed on 

 canary-seed, and are very fond of oats and grass-seed 

 in the ear. I always put water into the cage in which 

 I kept mine, but they did not drink much, and I never 

 saw them bathe. They delighted in being let out of 

 their cage, and would run along the green bars of the 

 Venetian blinds, warbling and chirping to each other 

 all the time ; but when once allowed their liberty, they 

 were very loth to return to their confined quarters, and 

 were so crafty, that if constrained by hunger to go into 

 the cage for a minute, they would pop out of it again 

 before any one could shut them in. These birds fre- 

 quently breed in England in December or January. 

 They do not build a nest, but lay their four eggs in a 

 piece of wood with a hole in the centre, -which they 

 will hollow out till deep enough, or in a cocoa-nut pre- 

 pared for the purpose. They like to go through a hole 

 to their resting-place, and to be as retired as possible ; 

 therefore I should doubt the wisdom of taking away 

 the first eggs, and substituting false ones till the four 

 are laid. The reason given for this practice is, that 

 the hen lays every other day only, so that the young 

 would be some days apart in hatching. She sits seven- 



