36



CORRESPONDENCE.



THE SENEGAL PARROT.


Sir, — I must begin by complimenting you on the charming number

■with which the new series of the Avicultural Magazine begins. Plates —good

coloured plates—of the various birds are what all amateurs want. How

many can realise a bird from the scientific description ?


Now, the point of my letter is to say that I see, in “Avicultural

Small-Talk,” a recommendation to bird lovers to try the Senegal Parrot as

a pet. I have long had the opinion that these, and the allied Riippell’s, and

Meyer’s Parrots would make charming pets; but they must be procured

tame and free from fever , to which they are as liable as the Grey Parrot.


It is curious that, according to my experience, the fever which is so

destructive to Grey Parrots, is confined to them and Peeocephali. I have had

an Amazon in the room with Grey Parrots and Senegals, everyone of which

was swept off by it, but it was quite unaffected; nor do the Parrakeets

seem liable to it.


It is a pity that no one will try and cultivate the bacillus and

inoculate Grey Parrots with it Birds safe through the fever would com¬

mand a good price. At present, buying a recently-imported Grey Parrot or

Senegal from a shop is sheer waste of money.


F. G. Dutton.



A PET TROUPIAL.


Sir, —It has been suggested to me that it may interest some of your

readers if I give a short account of a Troupial that we have had for the last

seven-and-a-half years.


In the summer of 1SS9, my husband sent it home to me from New

Barcelona, in Venezuela, where he was then residing. He had bought it of

a negro boy, who was carrying it on his hand in the street and exhibiting

iLby letting it sit on his finger. Not having a cage in readiness, on

reaching home my husband turned it loose into an enclosed courtj^ard,

where it at once made itself at home, never attempting to fly further away

than to the roof of a neighbouring house ; and soon after a friend brought it

to England, and from that time till now, under the name of “The Baby,”

it has been the pet and plaything of the house.


With the fear of cats before me, I keep the Baby in a cage, but

constantly let him out to hop about the room. The window opening into a

greenhouse, on warm days he loves to flit about among the plants searching

for insects; and though at times he gets into disgrace by opening the buds

of the flowers with his beak to see what they may contain, I forgive him, as

he devours an immense amount of green fly and other troublesome insects.

Hardly any inseft comes amiss, but he chiefly delights in earwigs, black

beetles, spiders and all sorts of flies. He sits on my finger and catches flies

off the window with extraordinary rapidity, and when I gather a bunch of

roses I always bring them to him and he will deftly lift ever} r petal in search

for earwigs.


In his cage he is fed with sop, sponge cake, biscuits and fruit; and

in winter, when it is difficult to keep him supplied with insects, he occasion¬

ally has a little chopped raw meat. At afternoon tea, he often has a



