THE WHITE- EARED CONURE. 215 



the aviary, and all were unoccupied ; but nothing would 

 serve the spiteful White- ears but to attack and oust 

 the offspring of the most harmless of Parrakeets, my 

 favourite Cockateels. 



I soon disposed of the Conures after that, and when 

 a friend afterwards sent me a couple of dozen of the 

 fiends to mind for him, I promptly returned them, and 

 I fear offended him by so doing, but I could not help 

 it, for I did not want a repetition of the tragedy. 



All the same, as I have since thought, I acted a 

 little hastily, for I could have put the Conures into 

 another compartment by themselves, but it was too 

 late when the idea occurred to me, and what had been 

 done could not be undone. 



In size the White-eared Conure is about half as big 

 again as a Budgerigar, consequently the young Cockateel 

 victims were actually as large as, if not larger than, 

 their assailants, and how the latter managed to lift the 

 fat heavy squabs out of the barrel and throw them 

 down on the floor, has always been a puzzle to me. 



These wicked, spiteful little Parrakeets (the White- 

 ears) are extremely pretty, so that Mr. Lydon's portrait 

 of one of them in "Parrots in Captivity" does them 

 no more than justice. The head to the top of the 

 neck is brownish-grey; the upper half of the cheeks, 

 chestnut-brown ; and the ear-coverts white. The throat 

 and breast are grey with white lacing to each feather; 

 the point of the shoulder is red; the wings and back, 



