THE



49



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. IV. — No 2. — All rights reserved. DECEMBER, 1912.



SUCCESSFUL BREEDING OF THE

GRAND ECLECTUS PARROT.


By Miss Drummond.


My attempt to breed the Grand Eclectus Parrot has gone on

for three years. The pair have had four nests, but the eggs have

all been clear, except last year, when one hatched out, but owing to

a badly-constructed log the chick fell out and was killed at about

three weeks old, probably caught in the hen’s wing. However,

fortune has turned, and I have now two well-grown, well-feathered

young ones—male and female—feeding themselves and flying in and

out of the flight when the window is opened on fine days. It is, I

suppose, being lighter than the old birds that they use their wings so

much, the old ones generally only scramble from one end of their

aviary to the other.


The eggs are white, about the size of a large walnut, and there

are always two. Incubation lasts 30 days, during which time the hen

seldom comes out of the log, and is fed almost entirely by the male.


These young ones were hatched about July 21st, and came

out of the log on October 9th, returning to sleep there for the first

ten days. While in the log the hen fed them entirely for the first

month, as, during incubation, the hen was almost entirely fed by

the cock. Then she fed herself, as well as receiving from the cock,

and a large amount of food was consumed by both birds, viz. :

boiled Indian corn damp, Osborne biscuit made into sop, with a little

Mellins’ food made with boiled milk, and either baked rice-pudding'

or boiled potato, besides the usual seed, two or three apples, chick-

weed and lettuce and a few nuts. The green food I thought most



