290



Correspondence, Notes, etc.



good health on arrival. They were turned into a large cage in my heated

bird-room (kept by liot-water pipes at a temperature of 6o° to 70° Fall.), and

fed on canary and oats with fresh sea-sand and water daily. A piece of

cuttle-fish bone was hung in the cage. Nothing else was given. A week or

ten days after arrival one of the birds began to show signs of indisposition

and gradually became worse. I therefore separated them, put the healthy

bird in another cage and discontinued the oats. I may mention that the

healthy bird is now flying with other Parrakeets in an unheated loft aviary,

is coming into good plumage and will, I hope, be turned shortly into one

of my outdoor aviaries.


The invalid, however, became so weak that it could only with

difficulty mount its perch. It seemed incapable of supporting the weight

of its head. Its excreta were yellow and watery, and its breast-bone looked

like a razor under its feathers. It ate but not largely, and seemed to

appreciate the cuttle-fish bone. At this stage I sprinkled its seed with a

mixture of powdered chalk, dry arrowroot and bismuth. It was so ill that

I expected to find it dead every time I entered the bird-room, but after a

week or two of the above-mentioned treatment it began to get better and

now seems to be well on the way to recovery. My bird has undoubtedly

been suffering from enteritis which may have been due to septicaemia. I

therefore fed it as simply as possible. If the death of Mrs. PIartle3 ,, ’s birds

was due to the same cause, I think it would have been better to withhold

the yolk of egg, which has been shown by Dr. Creswell to be especially

favourable to the propagation and the development of the virulence of the

bacilli of septicaemia. I have been an aviculturist for nearly thirty years,

but these are the first Blue Bonnets which I have possessed.


I should be very glad to hear whether any of our members have kept

Brown’s Parrakeets with other birds, and, if so, what their behaviour has

been towards the other inmates of the aviary. I have had a pair in an out¬

door aviary by themselves for the last twelve months, but, unless they show

some inclination to breed, shall be disinclined to allow them to continue its

sole occupants. T. N. Wilson.


BIRDS BRED AT THE MELBOURNE ZOO.


According to the Emu for April, there have been hatched and reared

at the Melbourne Zoological Gardens during the past season, “White-

bellied Plumed Pigeon ( Lophopliaps leucogaster), Partridge Bronzewings

(Geopliaps scripta ) and many Stubble Ouail ( Cotumix pectoralis)."



THE MUSKY LORIKEET.


The following note appears in the Emu for April last :—“On the 9th

October, 1904, in the Bacchus Marsh district, I chopped out a nest of the

Musk Lorikeet (Glossopsittacus concinnus), which, much to my disappoint¬

ment, contained a young bird. Having enlarged the nesting-hole to such



