180 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



Jerrard was able to report with certainty that the 

 female Parrot was brooding. 



From that point the watcher waxed keener than 

 ever in his fraternal spying upon the rare and lovely 

 Parrots. Working with care, he erected a rough 

 hessian shelter in front of the exposed little hillock 

 that afforded the birds a home, and from this van- 

 tage-point was able both to study and photograph 

 the pair. On March 18th, 1922, Mr. Jerrard sent me 

 the first picture ever taken of the Paradise Parrot at 

 its nest. This photograph depicted both male and 

 female, and showed the regal little head of the house 

 to be the bolder bird of the two. 



Indeed, though apparently the female was sole 

 custodian of the eggs the male was never seen to 

 enter the tunnel she was much more nervous than 

 her mate. Frequently he would accompany her to 

 the hollow, which she would at once enter and re- 

 main in for periods extending from half an hour to 

 two hours. The ceremony attached to her re- 

 emergence was both interesting and pretty. The 

 male would alight on the mound, and, looking into 

 the hole, emit soft, sweet chirps until the faithful 

 little home-keeper answered by coming out and fly- 

 ing off with him. 



Is not this practice in affinity with the methods 

 adopted in the conduct of the homes of Hornbills? 

 The male Paradise Parrot is evidently master of his 

 own household, and were he not an entirely amiable 

 bird, as old English aviculturists assure us was 

 found to be the case, he might have developed who 

 knows? the domineering tactics of the Hornbills, 

 and walled his mate in the nesting-hollow for the 



