RING-NECKED PAKRAKEETS. 



201 



Mr. Seth- Smith in his " Parrakeets " ; he does not say 

 whether it has been imported, but I presume that it 

 has. The wild life would be similar to that of the 

 other races. 



RING-NECKED PARRAKEET OF MAURITIUS 

 (Palceornis eques). 



Very like the Indian Ring-necked species (P. torquata) 

 but larger, of a darker green colour and with broader 

 tail-feathers; upper mandible red, lower mandible 

 reddish-black ; feet dark grey ; irides yellow ; naked 

 orbital skin orange. Female with no bluish tinge on 

 back of head, no mandibular black stripe or rose 

 collar ; the black stripe being only indicated by a 

 darker shade of green ; central tail-feathers bluer ; beak 

 entirely dusky black. Hab., Mauritius. 



Russ says of this species (" Handbuch fur Vogellieb- 

 haber," p. 208) : " Shy, invariably far from human 

 habitations, is gradually becoming extinct. Call-note 

 kikkik repeated four or five times, also melodious 

 whistling. Rare in the trade, is mostly confounded with 

 the little Alexandrine," by which he means P. torquata. 



Mr. Seth-Smith says that Russ had a specimen which 

 " became extremely tame and affectionate, and learnt to 

 speak well." He probably quotes from Russ's "Talk- 

 ing Parrots," a popular little book which I do not 

 possess. 



INDIAN RING-NECKED PARRAKEET (Palceornis torquata}. 



The prevailing colour of the cock bird is green, but 

 the back of the head and the central tail-feathers are 

 somewhat bluish ; a black line runs from the nostrils 

 to the eye, and a broad stripe runs downwards from the 

 beak and then across the sides of the neck ; imme- 

 diately -below this black stripe is a rose-red collar 

 which encircles the neck excepting in front ; the breast 

 is tinged with greyish ; the under wing-coverts are 

 yellowish-green; the whole of the lateral tail-feathers 

 are yellow on the inner and greenish on the outer web, 

 and all are tipped with yellow ; the beak is red with 

 brownish tip, the cere grey, feet ashy, iris of 

 eye pale yellow, with the edges of the eyelids pale 

 orange. The hen differs from the cock in the absence 

 of the black stripes and the rose-red collar, the latter 

 being indistinctly indicated in emerald green. Hab., 

 India, Ceylon, and the Indo-Burmese region as far as 

 Cochin-China. 



Jerdon says of this bird ("Birds of India," Vol. I., 

 pp. 258, 259) : " It is one of the most common and 

 familiar birds in India, frequenting cultivated ground 

 and gardens, even in the barest and least wooded parts 

 of the country, and it is habitually found about towns 

 and villages, constantly perching on the house top. It 

 is very destructive to most ki'nds of grain, as well as 

 to fruit gardens. Burgess says that they carry off the 

 ears of corn to trees to devour at leisure, and I have 

 observed the same sometimes. When the grains are cut 

 and housied, it feeds, on the ground, on the stubble 

 corn field, also on meadows, picking up what seeds it 

 can ; and now and then takes long flights, hunting for 

 any tree that may be in fruit, skimming close to and 

 examining every tree ; and when it has made a dis- 

 covery of one in fruit, circling round, and sailing with 

 outspread and down-pointing wings, till it alights on 

 the tree. It associates in flocks of various size, some- 

 times in vast numbers, and generally many hundreds 

 roost together in some garden or grove." 



' It breeds both in holes in trees, and- very com- 

 monly, in the south of India, about houses, in holes 

 in old buildings, pagodas, tombs, etc. Like the last, 



I 



it lays four white eggs. Its breeding season is from 

 January to March. Adams states that " he has seen, 

 this Parrakeet pillage the nests of the Sand Martin ; 

 but with what intent, he does not guess at. Its ordinary 

 flight is rapid, with repeated strokes of the wings, 

 somewhat wavy laterally, or arrowy. It has a harsh 

 cry, which it always repeats when in flight, as well as 

 at other times." 



The Ring-neck is generally known amongst soldiers 

 and sailors as the " Green Parrot," under which name 

 I was familiar with it when a child. On account of 

 the facility with which it can be taught to speak, it is 

 a great favourite with the ladies, although it gives them 

 many a headache through its propensity to scream. 

 At times it is imported in such numbers that the 

 market becomes glutted, and specimens can be pur- 

 chased at absurd prices. I have known it to be offered 

 as low as 5s. per bird. Some specimens have been 

 taught to talk quite well ; though, more often than not, 

 their owners have supposed that they could not be 

 instructed to speak distinctly, but only with a nasal 

 twang, the consequence being that the birds always 

 talked as if they belonged to a Punch and Judy show. 

 When nicely instructed, the language is distinctly 

 human, but low-pitched, so that one has to stand near 

 the cage .to hear what the bird is saying ; there is 'none 

 of the outspoken clearness which characterises the 

 utterances of the Grey Parrot or any of the talking 

 Amazons. 



I have never kept this species myself, though I was 

 once offered a hen in a good cage for 5s. ; but a 

 shrieking hen Parrot did not tempt me ; had it been a 

 cock bird, I might have closed with the offer. 



In The Avicultural Magazine, First Series, 

 Vol. VIII., p. 46, Mr. Porter describes his experiences 

 in breeding this species in a lean-to aviary:- A four- 

 and-a-half-gallon barrel was suspended for the nest- 

 ing-receptacle. In 1900 one young one was reared ; in 

 1901 two were hatched, but one crawled out of the 

 hole and was killed by its fall to the ground, the other 

 was reared. In Germany the species has been bred on 

 several 'Occasions, notably by Mr. WigancI ; the young 

 are six weeks in the nest, and then for some time after- 

 wards are fed by their parents. The first example 

 recorded in the Londo-n Zoological Society's " List " was 

 deposited at the Gardens in 1862 ; altogether quite six 

 or seven dozen specimens must have been added to 

 their collection since that date. In 1889 my old friend 

 Col. Charles Swinhoe presented a yellow aberration to 

 them. 



AFRICAN- RING-NECKED PARRAKEET (Palceornis docilis). 



It differs from P. torquata in its shorter wings and 

 smaller beak, the colouring of which is less vivid, more 

 or less suffused with slaty purplish, but it is by no 

 means black, as has been asserted. Von Heuglin 

 describes the beak as crimson, more blackish at the tip ; 

 the feet fleshy leaden; the iris rosy yellowish, with 

 similarly-coloured naked circle surrounding the eye. 

 Hab., North of the Equator from Abyssinia ta 

 Senegambia. 



In its wild state this species lives chiefly in small 

 companies in wooded steppes and on the banks of rivers 

 where there are tall trees. It flies restlessly with much 

 noise from tree to tree, and is very conspicuous wher- 

 ever it is restless and very voracious. It devours figs, 

 dates, tamarinds, and other fruits. Its flight is high, 

 rapid, and direct, its long tail held quite horizontally, 

 and the well-known whistle of the old males is 

 abundantly heard, both when leaving and approaching 



