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wrong feeding, I have no wish to disturb their belief. But the

gentle nibble, nibble, nibble, shows me that my parrots certainly

do not do it from irritation, but to amuse themselves.


To return then to our feeding.


All the African Parrots, Psittacus and Pococephalus, may be

fed as Amazons are fed. I should not object to their having a

dry bone to pick to pieces, if they liked it. It is not as good as

wood, bnt if no meat is on it, it will be better to let the bird have

it, than to give it nothing to bite to pieces. However, I must

confess that I have never been able to get any parrot to touch a

bone.


The smaller parrots and the paroquets I give less hemp.

For them I think equal parts of hemp, millet and canary best.

Cockatoos I feed as I feed grey parrots, and all Australian

paroquets need little hemp. Budgerigars want none.


The difficulty of feeding correctly comes with Australasian

and the Spice Islands parrots.


The New Zealand parrakeets ( Cyanorhamphus ), I feed as I

do the smaller Australians. Stringops I have never had. I was

offered one at a high price, but as Sir W. Buller says that even

in New Zealand they have not been kept alive longer than

eighteen months in captivity, I declined the offer. Nestor I

have never had, but Mr. Fulljames told me he parted from his

Notcibilis , because it was so messy a feeder. The late Mr.

Bartlett assured me that when he gave Nestor notabilis (the sheep

eater) mutton chop and Indian corn, it left the mutton chop for

the Indian corn. The form of their bill would almost lead one

to suppose that the}" wanted much the same food as the Lories.

Bnt as it is a fact, that Blue Mountain Lories eat honey in the

wild state, and yet canary seed and millet suit them best in

captivity, I do not see why the Nestors should not be content

with seed.


Polytelis I have never kept, but I believe they want a

certain amount of soft food.


I have never myself been able to get the true Lories, Eos

and Lorius, on to seed, but as far as health is concerned, I found

the following mixture suit them perfectly. Take a dried fig,

pour boiling water over it, let it soak, and then mash it up with

a bun. It need not be given too moist. If ever I had the luck

to get the tiny Coj'iphili from the Fiji Islands, I should try that.


The species that beats me is Nymphicus. To look at their

bills you would say they were seed-eaters ; but I bought a lot of

eight once, which looked healthy enough. They all died, one



