07 i the Bleeding of Queen Alexandta Pa)rakeets. 245


or my head, and will devour mealworms, biting off their heads

and squeezing out their insides! Then he chucks away the skin

and greedily demands another.


On one of the last days in May, I again looked in, as the

hen bird hardly ever appeared, and to my joy found two fine

young birds, although I was a little disappointed that five of the

eggs were unhatched. However, the two were really very fine

and large, and completely feathered, looking like their mother in

colour, but more washed out.


On the 3rd of June, the old birds were again seen in the

act of mating, and the hen began to throw some of the refuse out

of the nesting-box, so that I deemed it advisable to remove the

young birds, which were still unable to fly, to a big open box

with an inch of sawdust at the bottom, and put them quite low

down, so that they would not be injured by falling, for I had

visions of their being turned out by their mother and tumbling

down ten feet 011 to a hard cement floor. When I took the

young ones out, the male bird fussed round in a great stew, so

that I felt confident that lie would continue to feed them, although

they would not be so very long before they fed themselves.


The parent birds have had an abundance of fresh grass

seeds, dandelion leaves, etc , as well as gentles and biscuit sop,

and if they are as proud of their young ones as I am, they must

be very cock-a-hoop birds indeed ! I have striven for nine years

to breed these beautiful Parrakeets (Rose-throated Parrakeets as

I like to call them !) and I hope I have at last succeeded.


If these young ones reach full maturity, they will be the

first to do so outside Australia, as far as I know, but I do not

think there is much doubt about it.


% * * *


The two nestlings left the box on the 6th of June, when

they were probably nearly five weeks old. They can now feed

off biscuit sop when it is held in front of them (9th June).


Their colouring resembles the adult female, except that

the forehead is a mauve pink instead of pale blue, and the

ceres are pale yellow. The rose-coloured throats are quite as

brilliant as in the adult bird.


The parents are busy preparing for a second brood.



