on the Yellow Budgerigar.



37



The courting as with us humans, is interspersed with a

reasonable amount of quarrelling—which I will call euphemisti¬

cally, amantium ircz! The cock, as is just and proper, makes

the first advances. He begins by coming, like the historic

spider of the story, ‘ to sit down beside her.’ This little

proceeding does not always answer, as poor Master B. has to

suddenly have a ‘ call elsewhere,’ as Dissenting preachers say to

their flocks. After a bit, the lady grows more amenable to

discipline, and Mr. B. tries a little singing. His voice is a bit

harsh and grating : I know he is called poetically ‘the Warbling

Grass Parrakeet,’ but somehow his voice reminds me of sounds

I once heard issuing from a miner’s cottage. After the poor

little hen has got used to the inevitable, the cock proceeds to

offer her sundry tit-bits from his beak. These she at first

indignantly refuses, but after a while thinks better of it, and

accepts what he offers in a spirit of meekness and with a ready

mind.


Eggs are now not far off. A few days will see the hen a

bit thick and puff}"; then she will disappear into the nest, and, if

all be right, emerge some fine morning as though nothing had

happened. To attain this desirable end, it is most important to

give a good supply of cuttle-fish bone, both powdered and in the

piece. If this be neglected there will be a nice corpse to bury.


The eggs are deposited every other day, and are generally

five or six in number, and consequently when hatched the young

are of very various ages, the eldest born in the case of six eggs

being ten days ahead of his unfortunate younger brother Jacob.

This does not seem to matter, as they all come right in the end.


In nesting I find Budgerigars of accommodating spirit.

I was going to say they will nest anywhere. I think they prefer

a good roomy cocoa-nut husk, hung up long ways and with the

hole at the top: but I have had equally good results in a

box with a properly constructed hollow in the bottom.


Budgerigars will delight anyone who loves to look at the

pretty nests. We are told that some birds do not mind their

family arrangements being inspected. The only bird that I

know of who does not object is the Budgerigar: but do not go

too far, even with him. He will allow you to lift down the husk



