On the Nesting of Red-capped Parrakeets, etc. 291


from want of evidence, in the unsatisfactory condition of being

quite unsubstantiated and, at the same time, insusceptible of

rejection ; and new facts bearing upon it, such as aviculturists

can supply, are badly needed.



NESTING OF RED-CAPPED PARRAKEETS


Porphyrocephalus spurius,


AND A HYBRID STANLEY - ROSELLA.


By Hubert D. Asteey, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


On my return from Italy on the 1st of June I found that

my fine pair of Red-capped Parrakeets had nested in a deep box,

and when I looked in there were six fine eggs, of a size which

seemed fairly large in proportion to the parents. The aviary

attendant told me the hen bird had been sitting for some time.

On the 7th of June I heard a faint squeaking when the hen bird

was off, and immediately considered it my duty, although I am

averse to prying into other people’s affairs, to run for the aviary

ladder, climb up and peep in.


Four young ones ! apparently about four or five days old,

covered with grey down, which must have hatched a day or two

after I looked in the nest, but no trace of the two eggs which had

not hatched ; not a remnant of a shell as far as I could see.

Having, when counting these chickens before they were hatched,

determined to take one to rear up by hand, on the 2nd of July I

again looked in, and found that the eldest of the brood was just

beginning to show his feathering on the secondary quills, a good

age for beginning his education, so I dived my hand down and

extracted him. Uncommonly like a young vulture, ugly, exceed-

ingly ugly to other people’s eyes, but to mine most beautiful.

I proudly thought as I held him in my hand, “ Perhaps this is

the first Red-capped Parrakeet that will be reared in England, or

indeed maybe in Europe,” until I heard, a few days later, that

the same species was nesting in Mr. FasejCs aviaries. Covered

thickly with grey fluff, and a patch of the same at the nape of the

neck of dull white, the quills breaking through like a porcupine,

he certainly looked a queer object. Those of the under tail-



