144 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



up on end, with a hole cut out of the top of one of 

 the staves so that the birds could get in and out of it. 

 The lid was movable, and revolved on a small pivot. 

 The hen speedily took possession of the barrel, awkwardly 

 placed for her as it was, and from her frequent and 

 long visits to it I concluded that she would soon lay, 

 or had, perhaps, already done so. Profiting by her 

 temporary absence at the seed-box one day, I peeped 

 in and saw no less than four roundish white eggs lying 

 close together among the sawdust which I had put in 

 the barrel, and which the Parrakeet had not removed. 



Incubation had apparently set in, and the male took 

 no part in it, indeed he seldom went near his mate, 

 but was nevertheless on the watch and savagely repulsed 

 any bird that ventured near. When the hen came out 

 to stretch her wings he fed her, and I, naturally, awaited 

 the result of the hatching with a good deal of interest. 



One day, however, on entering the aviary I found 

 a small unfledged Parrakeet lying, sadly mutilated, on 

 the ground near the barrel, and on picking it up found 

 that it was too big to be a Budgerigar, and could only 

 be a young Ring-neck, and that its unnatural parents 

 must have killed it and mutilated the remains, from 

 which the legs, wings and bill had been eaten or torn 

 away. 



On the second morning I found another young one 

 in the same condition, and on the next a third 1 So 

 I turned the old bird out of the barrel and on looking 



