Undulated Grass Parrakeet. 435 



of Undulated Grass Parrakeets are apt to become too fat for breeding successfully. If a few 

 pairs are kept together, some spiteful individual amongst them frequently destroys the eggs, 

 and the evil-doer is difficult to discover and to remove. These mischief-makers are always 

 unmated hen-birds. But if a room be stocked with fifty, one hundred, or two hundred Budgerigars, 

 supplied with more than sufficient amount of nest accommodation, no such accidents will 

 arise, and all the birds, which in their wild state are eminently gregarious, will select the chosen 

 habitations without difficulty, and nest without trouble. The newly-hatched young are queer- 

 looking grey-brown bodies, and become green only when the feathers begin fully to develop. 

 When hatched in nests of hard wood which happen to be too deep, there is danger of the 

 young birds over-straining their legs when endeavouring to leave the nest, and thereby becoming 

 cripples. 



Cage-bred Undulated Parrakeets never fully acquire the bright green of their imported 

 parents, a:nd are found to breed less freely. Male and female are easily distinguished by the 

 male having what the dealers call a blue nose, viz., the hue of the nostrils is blue, while that 

 of the female is pale brown. The birds breed freely almost all the year round after having 

 once begvm. 



The Undulated Parrakeets are utterly indifferent to warmth, and may safely be kept in 

 a dry open-air aviary during the coldest winter. In fact, they might easily be acclimatised 

 in this country ; and a pair of escaped Budgerigars lived for several years in the trees of one 

 of the West-End squares. I kept a pair in an open-air aviary during the severe winter 

 1878 — 1879, a"d no birds could be healthier than they were. It was a curious sight to see 

 these birds flying about merrily whilst thick snow covered the wire roof above them. They 

 were exhibited at the Crystal Palace in P^ebruary, 1879, and their transfer to the warmer 

 temperature of the show-tent caused them to lay eggs on the floor of their cage, and to 

 begin the serious business of incubation regardless of the thousands of daily spectators. 



Budgerigars, when once fairly settled in an aviary or cage, are not likely to fall ill, but 

 many females are lost through egg-binding, the premonitory symptoms of which are drooping 

 wings and a distended abdomen. In such cases I administer a few drops of castor oil with 

 a tooth-pick, and introduce a little sweet oil into the egg-passage by means of a small 

 feather. 



A very wide-spread idea is that the Undulated Parrakeets are such affectionate love-birds 

 that if one of a pair happens to die, the other will speedily die from grief; but the fact is 

 that, although these merry little Parrakeets are happiest when kept in pairs, or happier still 

 if kept in large numbers, yet they will live for years singly. No bird that I could name 

 is as harmless towards other birds and as peaceful at all times with his own fellows. In their 

 matrimonial relations these birds are very affectionate. The male bird devotes the whole of his 

 attention to his own mate and the young, and jealously guards the entrance to the nest. Even 

 surplus males are not quarrelsome, but quite the contrary, for unattached male birds often 

 assist in feeding young broods, whilst only unmated females — possibly from disappointment — 

 have often proved destructive to eggs, and had to be removed. 



Of late years varieties of the Undulated Parrakeet have been bred with increasing 

 frequency. More or less pure yellow birds have been bred, mostly in Belgium. Even a blue 

 variety has occurred, and at least one breeder has, through careful selection of stock, produced 

 a breed of unusual size. Without doubt another ten or twenty years will witness as great 

 results of intelligent breeding of varieties of the Budgerigar as has been witnessed in the case 

 of the Canary. 



