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THE BREEDING OF THE BARRABAND PARRAKEET.


* (Polytelis barrabandi).


By the Rev. C. D. Farrar.


If any had told me that I should this year be successful

in breeding Barraband’s Parrakeet, I should probably have

answered them in the words of a certain old Syrian king, “Who

is thy servant, dog that he is, that he should do this thing ? ”—

and yet I have actually done so ; and there are at present three

healthy young Barrabands at Micklefield Vicarage.


Barrabands, I may begin by saying, are not at all like the

hideous brute depicted in “ Greene’s Parrots in Captivity.”

Such an atrocious and ill assorted mixture of colours I never

hope to see on a living bird, and apparently this specimen had a

dislocated wing among his other beauties !


The real Barraband is one of the most beautiful birds I

ever saw, and the arrangement of the colours is exquisite.

Whoever comes to see my birds (and they are far too few)

invariably goes into raptures over the Barrabands.


In shape the Barraband very much resembles the Ring-

necked Parrakeet, but it is even more graceful.


In Australia they are sometimes known by the ill sounding

name of “ Green Reeks,” but I can’t think how anyone could

give this lovely bird such a vulgar name.


In size the Barraband is about equal to a Pennant, but has

not the girth of the latter, being exceedingly graceful and slim-

waisted and with a long pointed tail.


The colour of the cock is a beautiful iridescent green ; his

forehead is a lovely crocus-yellow, which colour extends under

the chin, where it merges into a narrowish band of red. The

wings are iridescent green, merging into bluish-green on the

flights.


The hen is of rather a different shade of green in the

body, merging into greenish-blue on the wings and upper side

of the tail. Her eye is dark. The tail has the inner edge of

each feather, or the under side of the tail, of a beautiful salmon-

pink. She has also a dash of pink on the thighs (d).


There is, therefore, no possibility of mistaking the cock

and the hen.


Mr. Gedney says of them, “As cage pets they are very


(■ c ). The thighs of a singularly fine hen, which I have had six years, show orange

and vermilion.—O.E.C.



