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Notes on the Crystal Palace Bird Show.



•extremely rare birds, and belong to quite the most delightful

group of Australian Parrakeets, of which some of the most

lovely, e.g., the Turquoisine, the true Elegant, and the Splendid

Parrakeets are, I fear, almost gone, and gone for ever.


Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Millsum each sent a pair of Stanley

Parrakeets (.Platycercus icterotis), quite the best of the Broad¬

tails in my opinion, from an avicultural point of view. Other

good birds worth noticing were a Violet-necked Lory, a very fine

King Parrakeet, a Purple-capped Lory, and a Lineolated

Parrakeet.


The Class for True Parrots, Macaws and Cockatoos

came next, but there was no single specimen of either a Macaw

•or a Cockatoo present, and nothing very extraordinary in the

way of Parrots. The Rev. G. H. Raynor sent a very nice tame

little Meyer’s Parrot which easily carried off the first prize. The

second prize went to a magnificent Grey Parrot which, when I

Erst saw it, was busy enjoying a mutton bone. Its owner said it

had a bone, and by no means a dry bone, almost daily, and he had

had the bird eight years. Certainly it could not have been in

finer condition in spite of a portion of its diet consisting of meat

which, we are told by some of our most learned friends, is about

as bad as it can be for Parrots, and certain to start feather¬

eating !


A Black-headed Caique took the third, and a nice pair of

Blue-headed Parrots (Pionus me?istruus) the fifth prize. I could

not find the fourth prize winner—probably it had eaten its

card.


The Class for the commoner Waxbilus, Grasseinches,

Weavers, &e., contained nothing of special interest, and I have

no notes regarding it ; that devoted to the raven species however

contained some interesting exhibits.


Mr. Maxwell took the first, second, fourth and fifth prizes

here with (i) a beautiful pair of Australian Painted Finches

{Eviblenia picta ) (2) his “ Gaboon Weaver” which I mentioned in

my report on the London Cage-bird Show as probably being the

Sperviospisa guttata ; a black and red bird with a bluish tint on

its stout bill ; (4) a fine pair of Melba Finches, and (5) a perfect

cock Violet-eared Waxbill.



