on the Breeding of the Long-billed Parrakeet.



27



and next clay I carried them on board the river-boat which was to

take me to Corral, where I was to find a steamer to go south to

Punto Arenas, in the Straits of Magellan.


On the steamer everything went all right, but in Punta

Arenas, where I landed, new difficulties began. I was going to

spend a few days in Tierra del Fuego, and as that meant so many

days on horseback I could not possibly take the parrots with me.

Fortunately, at the Kosmos Hotel there was a bird-loving housemaid

who promised to take care of my birds whilst I was in Tierra del

Fuego, and she kept her promise, for on my return I found them as

noisy and as funny as I had left them.


By steamer, via the Smith Channel, I returned northward to

Conception taking the train from there to Santiago. From Santiago

I brought them to Buenos Ayres, under the same difficulties men¬

tioned in a previous paper treating of my Antarctic Goose, and in

Buenos Ayres I embarked with them on board the *' Zeelandia,”

hound for Amsterdam, where I landed them safely.


Notwithstanding all the knocking about, my two birds had

done very well, and the bird which I had first acquired and which

afterwards proved to be the male—the other one being a female as

luck would have it—was fast moulting his stumpy feathers when I

got them safely home in an aviary at Gooilust. The other bird was

not quite so robust, and as she had apparently no strength to get rid

of her old feathers I tried a stronger remedy and pulled out all the old

stumps, which had a very good effect, for after a few weeks of good

feeding and rest both birds were in splendid plumage and robust

health, remaining delightfully tame and always extremely glad to see

me. Although they were a true pair, they were constantly quarrel¬

ling over something, and the male would never allow the female to

come near me if he had not been fed or played with first.


There is hardly any difference in the sexes, but the male is

perhaps a trifle larger although the colours are identical. They like

to imitate noises and with pains could probably be taught to speak.

The female imitates a whistle with which I used to announce myself

on board the ship, and the male reproduces the loud spluttering call

of the red Oven Birds, which were its travelling companions on

board the “ Zeelandia.” Oven Birds, by the way, which are delight-



