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Mr. R. Phillipps,



BREEDING OF THE BLACK-CHEEKED LOVEBIRD.


Agapornis nigrigenis. W. L. Sclater.


Bulletin B.O.C. XVI., p. 61 (1906);


Avic. Mag. N.S., VI., p. 206.


By Reginald Phillipps.


In May last, I introduced to our readers three examples of

this rare and little-known species, and referred to two others that

I had seen. Shortly afterwards, two more arrived; and I learnt

that all the seven, although not “made in Germany,” reached

London through that country. These latter, which likewise I

saw, were doubtless a pair : they differed from one another in

sundry small ways—but then they appeared to be of different ages.

To be able to sex a bird at sight is of the first importance to

aviculturists ; so we may well, for a moment, consider the question

of the sex of the Black-clieeked Lovebird.


These seven birds, or some of them, although generally

alike (I am here, of necessity, speaking chiefly of those differ¬

ences which may be observed without handling the bird), differed

slightly from one another in the shading of various parts of their

plumage. If they could be divided by these differences into two,

and only two, groups, one might feel justified in saying that the

differences are sexual ; but I am not satisfied that they could be

so divided, even if it were possible to bring the birds together

and compare them with one another side by side. Nevertheless,

some of the differences may betoken a difference of sex.


The male and female of the adult Madagascar Lovebird

(A. canal) conspicuously differ from each other. Roughly speak¬

ing, the differences lie in the region of the head and in the

under wing-coverts. Then we have the Red-faced Lovebird ( A.

pullaria ) ; here again the sexes differ, at any rate after the first

moult; and the differences are found in the face, the under wing-

coverts, and in the metacarpal edge. The British Museum Cata¬

logue of Birds (XX., pp. 506 and 509) tells us that the adult

Abyssinian Lovebird (A. iaranta) also differs, and again in the

region of the face and in the under wing-coverts. On the other

hand, it is often practically impossible to be sure of the sex of a

couple of the Ros)’ , -faced birds (A. roseicollis). The sexes of the



