M4



oi a wife, Dad ; how would you like to be left all alone in the

cold ! ” “ True for } r ou, Dove.*' “ And, Dad, we must teach him


how to hatch eggs.” “ Then j^ou’ll be a granny , Dove.” “ Hum ;

and he’s no business to be making a granny of me : more like

his sister.” “ But he can’t get on without a wife, Dove.” “ Not

so sure ; she mightn’t agree with him. Shouldn’t like our Little

Boy Blue to be hen-pecked.” “ But the cold , Dove ; the cold."

“ Bother the cold, Dad.” “ Let’s snooze over it, Dove.” “ Let’s.”

And they snoozed.


On the 23rd January, 1899, I had a view of the two males

together in an exceptionally good light. I11 their colourings

they were practically identical—with one exception. Not only

was the ear-patch of the father of a much deeper and richer

colour than that of the son, but it was much larger, probably

twice as large. At the time (June) that I am writing, however,

the young bird seems the more brilliant of the two—he is

absolutely perfect.


I have obtained a wife for him. The bride was received

with much spitefulness by the old mother ; but this is rather

characteristic of mothers-in-law generally.


The four birds are now in the garden. The old parents

have settled down very quietly in their old quarters ; but alas for

the vanity and conceit of young people ! The young couple

built a large, untidy, Sparrow-like nest at the very top of a

poplar tree, in the most conspicuous and exposed place in the

whole aviary ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and

the winds blew, and beat upon that nest,—and in a few days it

was nothing but a sodden, shapeless mass of rubbish. The}^

have learned an important lesson of life, however, more quickly

and thoroughly than their masters often do, for they have since

gone to nest in a quiet secluded spot under a shed.



LORD DERBY’S PARRAKEET.


A pair of Parrakeets, of especial interest to aviculturists, on

account of their great rarity, have recently been acquired by the

Zoological Society and are now located in the Parrot-house of

the Society’s Gardens. These are the first examples of the

Derbian Parrakeet that have ever occupied the Gardens. In fact

only one previous example appears to have been known. This

bird, from which the species was named, found its way into

Lord Derby’s aviaries at Knowsley, where it lived for some time.



