THE RING-NECKED PARRAKEET. 145 



in found the fourth egg ready to hatch out, and 

 transferred it to the nest of an unmated Barbary Dove 

 in an adjoining aviary where she was sitting on two 

 barren eggs of her own which I then and there took 

 away, substituting that of the Parrakeet, which was 

 much about the same size, for them. 



Seeing that Doves and Parrakeets both feed their 

 young in the same manner, that is to say by taking 

 their beaks into their own mouths and regurgitating 

 food on which the little ones feed themselves, I thought 

 that in all probability the Dove might adopt the young 

 Ring-neck and bring it up as one of her own offspring : 

 but next morning on visiting the aviary, I saw the 

 poor little thing on the ground under the Barbary's 

 nest. It had simply been thrown out and was not 

 mutilated, although quite cold and as nearly as possible 

 dead from exposure; so I picked it up and again put 

 it under the Dove, standing by to watch what she 

 would do. As long as the infant Ring- neck kept quiet 

 the Dove took no notice, but as soon as, revived by 

 her warmth, it began to move slightly, she at once put 

 her head down under her breast, took the poor little 

 creature up in her bill and dropped it over the side 

 of the box in which she had made her nest. 



I replaced the unlucky Parrakeet, and again the Dove 

 turned it out : evidently she knew that it did not belong 

 to her, though she had never seen a young one of 

 her own kind ; but she would have nothing to do with 



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