200



Correspondence.



Could you put me on to a pair of Rosellas for breeding later on, have

no room at present. Are Redrumps dangerous with other birds?


I got your Parrakeels some time ago, it is a lovely book. I hope you

will write some more like it ! W. H. Workman.


The following reply was sent to Mr. Workman :


If the green Budgerigars are all paired before y'oti introduce the

yellows, and provided the latter are a pair, there is not much likelihood of

the 1 wo varieties crossing, though the young would doubtless cross, and

after a few seasons you would probably have a very mixed lot.


You would probably get a breeding pair of Rosellas without difficulty

if you inserted a “Wants” advertisement in the magazine.


Redrumps are often spiteful to other birds.


I am glad you like the book Parrakeels. D. Srtk-SmiTH.


THE ABYSSINIAN LOVEBIRD.


Sir, —I am writing to ask you whether you can tell me what species

of Agapomis I have been given. A lady' has presented me with a pair,

which she purchased in Genoa last November, and she tells me that there

were several of them at the bird-dealer’s where she acquired them.


About the size of the Rosy-faced Lovebird, certainly no smaller.


General colour: Bright grass-green. Primaries green with a sage-

brown tinge. Secondaries and up the edges of the shoulders deep blue-

black. Tails, dull green, with a blue-black band near the extremity.


Male: Forehead, and narrow edging round the eyes, orange-scarlet.


Female without the orange-scarlet forehead.


Bill in both sexes rose-scarlet and wax-like. Lower mandible pale

pink. The bill of the male being decidedly more massive than that of the

female. Feet grey; eyes deep brown.


They have very' pretty notes, sometimes a little resembling the Rosy-

faced Agapomis ; at other times the male has quite a twitter like the Ben¬

galee or some such small finch. Their heads are rather on a broad, large

scale. They are most certainly some species of Agapomis.


I have no books of reference here, but fancy \ have seen the bird

figured in the Ibis. I have never seen it before in the flesh. They are

inclined to be quarrelsome, and I should be sorry to trust them with small

birds. As there were several at Genoa, one would have thought that some of

them would have put in an appearance in England. Perhaps they have ?


Hubert D. Asti.ry.


[This is undoubtedly the Abyssinian Lovebird (Agapomis taranta)

(.Stanley). It is the largest of the group, being over six inches in length,

and one of the few in which the sexes differ in colour. It occurs in

North East Africa from Abyssinia to Shoa, and, so far as we are aware, has

not yet reached England alive. Mr. Astley writes from Italy. Ed.]


Members are asked to kindly note two annoying printers’ errors

which crept into the last number of the Magazine. Page 152 second line

from bottom—for substantly read substantially. Page 169, line nine front

bottom—for raven read rarer.



