Bice Birds.



75



The young birds resemble the female, except that the cere

and bills are bright orange-yellow, and the young males can evidently

be distinguished by a brighter wash of verdigris green on the under¬

parts and perhaps a greyer colour on the forehead. When I handled

them, they were all as plump as partridges, and had their crops well

filled.


The parents, besides having a daily supply of biscuit sop, and

when there was no frost, chickweed and shepherd’s purse, have

throughout greedily devoured fresh gentles, and to this latter food

can probably be attributed this great success. I believe that these

rare and most lovely parrakeets have never been bred in England

before.


By the 8th of December the young birds could all feed

independently.



RICE BIRDS.


By Katharine Currey.


Some of the funniest birds I have ever kept were the little

Bengalese Rice Birds, black-and-white, and yellow-and-white. I

had three pairs in a large cage, living very sociably together, with

plenty of moss and earth and grass in their cage, and in the middle a

good sized shallow bath. They ate rice, and seed, and dabbled in

the wet moss all day long, dragging it into their bath before bathing

in the water, and chatting incessantly, only one refrain, exactly like

the words Diddle-diddle-dee ! ” repeated very fast and loud, and

in a high key, while they stood on tiptoe, with their necks stretched

out, looking very much astonished. When the sun set they all

huddled together in the sheltered end of the cage, mounted on each

other, and forming a pyramid. When one of those underneath had

had enough of it, he crept out, and down fell the whole erection,

amid screaming and chattering. But they soon remade the pyramid,

the one who had been underneath now perching on the top—to cool,

and the one who had been on the top glad to creep beneath for

warmth. As the weather was warm, I supposed it was their way of

roosting, and the destruction and rebuilding of the pyramid might

have gone on ad infinitum had not a wiser bird friend told me the



