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young, fell to the male birds’ share: the hen starting a second clutch as

soon as the young left the nest. Early in August I went from home,

leaving a brood of young in each of the two nests. Unluckily, at this time

an invasion of mice occurred, and before the offenders were caught, the hen

belonging to one nest was killed, and the young were forsaken and died.

The nests were out of reach of the little pests; but the cock bird of the

second nest was somehow caught (at roost I suppose) and his thigh broken.

In spite of this severe injury, the heroic little bird brought up his brood

single-handed; his mate going to nest again, though the eggs, as might be

expected, proved unfertile. As a result, at the beginning of October, I

caged, besides the adults, five healthy juveniles in the pretty olive grey of

the first plumage.


And now I come to the point which really suggested this letter.

Judging from what occurred last year, the young will not come into full

colour until next May or June; but during the first winter slight changes

occur, commencing with the appearance of the feathers of the cap. To

my surprise, while his companions are shewing a few black feathers on

their heads, one little fellow has already assumed such a brilliant patch of

scarlet, that there can be no doubt that he will in due course become a

Red-liead, and also that, like, I believe, three of the other young birds, he is

of the male persuasion. How this is to be accounted for, I cannot say;

but it seems to point to one of two things : Either the young bird with

the red cap is the outcome of something more than a Platonic affeCtion

between the black-headed hen, the owner of the nest, and the unattached

red-headed cock—in which case thepurity of the scarlet seems rather strange—

or, if he is really the genuine offspring of parents both black-headed, it goes to

prove that both forms may occur in the same brood : which, though I believe

is suspected, has, so far as I know, not been definitely proved. That a stray

egg was not laid in the nest by the red-headed hen, I feel sure: for she

never appeared either to notice her mate, or to show any interest in the

nesting operations going on around her, and, as I have above said, she soon

drooped and died. W. H. ST. OuinTin.


IS GRIT DANGEROUS TO NEWLY IMPORTED PARROTS ?


Mr. Dutton’s correspondent was doubtless right as to his facts, but

quite wrong, I venture to think, in the conclusions which he drew from the

faCts.


I have more than once come across the condition described : the

gizzard, on opening the abdomen, presenting the appearance of a solid

tumour of stony hardness, filling up the greater part of the abdominal

cavit}'. When laid open, the gizzard was found to be completely filled with

a mass of grit and sand welded together into a solid lump, causing, of

course, a complete obstruction.


The correCt explanation of this condition I believe to be as follows:

It is well known that the function of the grit swallowed by birds is to aid

digestion, and that want of grit is a common cause of indigestion. Birds

deprived of this material during a more or less lengthy voyage, suffer from

indigestion, and, when the grit is at length supplied, are apt to swallow it

greedily and too freely. It is easy to imagine that an obstruction may thus

be caused, and that the discomfort to which th s condition gives rise leads

the bird instinctively to swallow more and more grit with the object of

relieving its suffering, giving rise at last to the condition described above,

and the speedy death of the patient.



