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repeatedly into his mouth, perhaps for five minutes at a time;

and then off he would fly to the nest, as much as to say, “ I

think the feeding bottle will do now.”


The hen brooded her young closely for about four days ;

afterwards she only stayed in the nest at night. Too hot I

expect !


The young ones are all out. but are being fed by the

parents. They have yellow beaks ; the hens onl} r a carmine crown

on the top of their heads, followed by sage green ; backs sage

green with dull black centres ; tails of hens tipped with white

and green centres ; cocks’ tails blue where the hens’ are green.

The young hens have much more green on the necks and sides

than the young cocks. Size, when they first came out, about

that of a big Rosella. They are now, August 21st, nearly as big

as their parents.


I have looked carefully through all books I know of, and,

so far as I can see, this is the first authentic account of rearing

Pennants. I paj^ no attention to vague general statements.


I might say that my Pennants dote on mealworms, and

eat them like shrimps, held in one claw. It may be nice for the

Pennant, but I should think decidedly nastj^ for the mealworm.


We have printed the above article exactly as received from the writer—and are quite

content to leave the point at issue to the good sense of our readers. It is possible that

Mr. Farrar has discovered a sexual distinction which escaped the notice of Gould,

Salvadori, and other ornithologists, and which the many aviculturists who have kept

Pennants for years have also failed to observe—but we do not consider that he has at

present proved this. We shall keep an open mind on the point until Mr. Farrar’s

conclusions are confirmed or disproved by other observers. If such a very marked

difference in colouring in the sexes actually exists in all examples, it is passing strange

that it has not been noticed before, and that the series of skins at the British Museum fails

to shew it. We should be glad if members who keep Pennants, of which they know the

sex, would carefully examine their plumage in the light of Mr. Farrar’s remarks and

communicate the result to us for publication.—E d.


Everyone who has had any experience of the Pennant Parrakeet (either living in

its native haunts, in captivity in Plurope, or dead in Museums) has unhesitatingly

described the sexes as alike; but Mr. Farrar, having apparently secured one or two

females of the closely allied species Platycercus adelaidee, and paired them successfully

with P. pennanti, has felt it his duty to set everybody right. The Adelaide Broadtail

is so closely related to Pennant’s Broadtail, that it would be quite remarkable if they

refused to interbreed. When races interbreed, examples resembling each parent are

quite likely to be reproduced by them. The young of typical Pennants are described as

being entirely green. Breeding Pennants has been repeatedly done in Germany, but

rearing the young has only been occasionally successful : nevertheless this has occurred.—

A.G.B.


REVIEW.


“ Foreign Bird Keeping ,” by Arthur G. Butler , Ph.D., F.L.S.,


F.Z.S .. etc. Part I. (“Feathered World ” Office).


This is a reprint of a series of articles which have recently

appeared in the Feathered World.



