44



On Sexing Parrakeets.



general and (in many birds) only other means of sexing them. In

Rosellas the colour may lead one absolutely astray, and Butler’s,

theory of the green spot on the nape of the neck is, I am absolutely

convinced, not only unreliable but also untrue. v It is quite true that,

generally speaking, the hen bird is very much duller than the cock

bird, and I must confess it was colour that first led me to doubt that

my Rosellas were a true pair. When I saw a solitary hen the

difference appeared to me so marked that I bought her on sight,

and subsequent events justified my judgment. Bright coloured hen

Rosellas may and no doubt do exist, but if I was buying a “ pair”

of birds I should want to make very sure of their sex in other ways

before I ventured on such a hen. In Pennants the colour is very

variable but, on the whole, the cock birds seems to be a purer red

with less dark marking than the hen, and he is too an altogether

finer fellow. In Bauer’s, Barnard’s, and others, as far as I could

ascertain, the colour difference is but slight. I need hardly say

that, if colour is but little guide in adults, it is practically speaking

of no value at all in the great majority of immature birds. In short,

colour is likely to prove the greatest pitfall of all in sexing birds,

and sexing birds is to the aviculturist of such moment that one

wonders more is not written on the subject, for without properly

sexing your birds you cannot breed them, and without breeding

them you cannot study them properly, and, after all, it is the pro¬

duction of young that appeals to the average aviculturist above

everything. The difficulty I had in getting true pairs of birds, led

me in the first place to study and find out the difference in the sexes

for myself, and in the second to place my observations on record, in

the hope that if correct they may be of help to others, and if in¬

correct they may stimulate controversy and debate. For airy errors

I take full responsibility and crave indulgence.


[Further correspondence on this subject would be very useful.

Perhaps Lord Tavistock and a few other members who have had

experience with the Platycercin.ee, will contribute.—E d.]



* In “ How to Sex Cage Birds,” pp. 127, 128, Dr. Butler states this on

the authority of the late Joseph Abrahams, a most acute observer. Moreover

the shape of the green spot was the character noted, not its presence.—ED.



