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voice is heard wild cries resound through the house, for I still

stand first in his affections. And when I open the cage-door

and he comes on to my hand,—with every feather on end, with

wings extended and tail outspread, quivering with excitement,

and talking and laughing away to his utmost capacity—it is

difficult to imagine a more attractive creature ; and I wonder

to myself how I ever could have hacl the heart to part with Polly.


Polly often “ nested,” and would certainly have bred with

me if he had had a mate.



CORRESPONDENCE.



DISTINCTION OF THE SEXES IN PENNANT PARRAKEETS.


[We have received a letter from Mr. Farrar in which he states (i) that

he has no Adelaide Parrakeets, either cocks or hens (2) that he knows the

difference between Adelaides and Pennants perfectly well (3) that all his

birds are common Pennants (.Platycercus elegans ). Unfortunately his letter

is worded in a needlessly aggressive wa}’—and we therefore consider it better

not to insert it.]



Sir,—I saw Mr. Farrar’s Pennants not a fortnight ago, and I most

emphatically say that, in my opinion, there is no doubt whatever about

their being ordinary Pennants.


Does Dr. Butler imagine that Mr. Farrar does not know a Pennant

from an Adelaide ? The hen Pennant is quite easily distinguished from the

cock by the dull bricky-red of her colour; her small rounded head, and, as

Mr. Farrar says, absolutely certainly by her tail, the middle of which is green,

whereas, in the cock it is deep blue.


I saw Mr. Farrar’s first hen Pennant, and though she was more

orangey-red in colour, she had the same shaped head and the same tail

colouring.


I have a hen Pennant, at present, identical with Mr. Farrar’s No. 2

hen, and I know another member of the Society who has one also.


Young Pennants, moreover, are not “ all green,” as Dr. Butler asserts;

nor “all brown,” as Mr. Gedney affirms; but marked precisely as Mr.

Farrar says in his recent article.


G. LE C. Grace.



Sir,—A s you invite notes on this subject, I should like to say a few

words on the matter.


In the first place, I may say that during the last six or seven years I

have had a dozen or more of these birds. I have three at present, one cock

and two hens—the cock is identical with Mr. Farrar’s description of his



( v) The dispute is about the female in Mr. Farrar’s possession—we believe the male is

admitted by all to be an ordinary Pennant Parrakeet. Will Mr. Oates tell us whether his

own hens shew the same difference from the cock (in plumage) as Mr. Farrar’s does?— Ed.



