S WAINS ON'S L ORIREET. 1 3 1 



have been since the year 1880, or a matter of sixteen 

 years : this pair, as well as some others that are their 

 juniors, have been fed on rice boiled in well-sweetened 

 milk, which they have given to them fresh several 

 times a day : the keeper also allows them a mealworm 

 now and then, and there is also seed in their cage, 

 but they do not appear to touch it. Fruit they will 

 suck greedily if sweet, such as grapes, and they have 

 some occasionally. 



When I bought my pair, Mr. Anton Jamrach told me 

 that it was all nonsense trying to keep them on a 

 diet of seeds, even when they had been brought over 

 to this country on it, and I accordingly fed mine after 

 the mode adopted in the Parrot-house, and I must say 

 I never possessed a handsomer or a healthier couple 

 of birds. 



It was as good as a play to watch the antics of the 

 male when he was paying court to the female : the 

 way he pranced and capered round her, the attitudes 

 he would fall into, and the extraordinary noises to which 

 he would give utterance, were most mirth-provoking; 

 but he was dreadfully, furiously jealous, not only ot 

 other Parrots and Parrakeets, but also of any and every 

 kind of bird, great or small, even of a great big foolish 

 Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) who had no eyes, 

 even for his own wife, and had certainly never bestowed 

 a thought on the fair Swainsonia. But the life he 

 led that poor Ring Dove, until I found it out just 



