PAROQUETS. 209 



chips of wood, and hatch them in about twenty days, the young remaining about 

 five weeks in the nest. 



Some breeders feed the nestlings on egg-food, others use egg and potato, while 

 a third authority recommends only canary and millet seeds. In breeding, either 

 a single pair should be kept in a cage, or a large number of pairs may be put % in a 

 room. Where several pairs are put in a large cage, there are very few young birds 

 raised ; for some spiteful old tk hen " will break most or all of the eggs. The newly 

 hatched young are grayish brown, and get in full color only when the feathers are 

 fully grown. The pairs breed freely nearly all the year round, when they have once 

 commenced. 



While they may be kept out in open-air aviaries all the year, and will withstand 

 the cold weather, it is necessary, in order to breed them, to keep them in a tempera- 

 ture ranging from seventy to eighty degrees, or higher. 



While, like all other birds, they are very amative under certain conditions, if 

 these conditions, one of the most important of which is heat, do not exist, they do 

 not seem to care to mate. An acquaintance had a pair which he kept confined out 

 of doors, and they had never built a nest. He could not understand the reason of 

 this : but when he loaned them to a friend, a noted breeder, the latter put them in 

 his regular breeding-room in a high temperature ; the result was, a mating on the 

 third day. Six eggs were laid, but the temperature was kept at ninety-five degrees ; 

 and so much attention was given to producing the eggs, that no time was reserved 

 for hatching them. Both birds seemed to agree that sitting was stupid business. 

 So fond of each other are these birds, that either will die in defence of its mate or 

 home ; and so necessary to each is the giving and receiving of affectionate regard, 

 that, if a pair is separated in mating season, neither of them will live many days. 



It is necessary to be personally acquainted with these lovable little creatures, 

 and to have observed them during the performance of their parental duties, to be 

 able to understand the enthusiasm with which they are regarded : it is only during 

 their pairing-time that we become fully conscious of their many merits. "The 

 male," says Devon, " is a model husband; and his mate is a model mother. He 

 devotes his whole attention to his chosen one, never heeding another female, though 

 she be in the same general nest with him : he is always zealous, devoted, and 

 ardent, indeed, shows the utmost affection towards his partner. Perched upon a 

 twig before the opening of the nest, he sings her his best song, and while she is 

 sitting prepares her meals for her, and feeds her with as much zeal as pleasure. 

 He is neither dull, quiet, nor sleepy, like many other husbands, but always cheerful." 



One hard fact, known to the initiated, rather weakens Mr. Devon's argument 

 respecting the male's great fidelity : it is, that the male selects a new partner each 

 breeding season. 



Of late yeai's. varieties of the Undulated Paroquet have been bred with increas- 

 ing frequency. Some pure yellow birds have been bred in Antwerp ; even a blue 

 variety has been obtained ; and one breeder, carefully selecting the largest pairs, 

 has now a regular breeding of very large birds. It is suggested, that, with a few 

 years more of cage-breeding, there will be produced as many varieties of this par- 

 ticular kind of Paroquets as there have been of Canaries bred from the one kind 

 of orio-inal stock. 



