58 Favourite Foreign Birds. 



BAUER'S and BARNARD'S PARRAKEETS, as very 

 desirable birds, regretting that I can do no more 

 than name any of them. 



There are some very interesting Parrots in New 

 Zealand, among which I may mention THE GOLDEN- 

 CROWNED and the RED-FRONTED PARRAKEETS. The 

 latter is quite hardy, and will breed, often quite freely, 

 in confinement. 



THE GREY PARROT, Psittacus erithacus (illustrated 

 at Fig. 1 8), makes a most charming pet. Docile and 

 affectionate to a degree when rationally treated, it 

 is the best talker of any bird known, and lives 

 to a good age, even passing from generation to gene- 

 ration of human owners as a living heirloom. 



For the benefit of the few who are unacquainted 

 with the bird, I may say that the head, neck, breast, 

 and back are of a light ashen-grey colour ; the wings 

 a darker grey ; the middle and lower part of the back 

 and the rump are greyish-white; the tail, as well 

 as upper- and lower-tail coverts, scarlet ; breast, belly, 

 sides, and hinder part of the body, whitish-grey; the 

 beak, black ; the eyes, black, grey, yellow, or white, 

 according to age ; the skin on the nose and a 

 circle round the eye (eye cere), featherless and greyish- 

 white ; the feet, bluish or whitish- grey, dappled with 

 black; the claws, black. The plumage of both male 

 and female is the same, and, like that of most Parrots, 

 more or less full of down. These birds vary much 

 in size, but the average length from tip of beak to 

 end of tail is from I4in. to I5^in. 



Newly-imported Grey Parrots are subject to extra- 

 ordinary mortality, owing to the unhealthy way in 



