on Sexing Black-cheeked Love-Birds.



163



to-day. At the time when I still doubted that I had a true pair, I

bespoke a pair from Mr. Frost. They duly came to hand last

November and I noticed one had a slight bald patch on the head,

quite slight and over one eye. That bird was by far the larger

bird. The circumorbital rings were noticeably larger and the beak

fuller and larger and the colour rather brighter than in the smaller

bird. To sex these birds was easy. Eggs had already been laid

before they came to me, and on turning them into a small aviary

w T ith a pair of Guiana Love-birds and other species they quickly settled

down and went to nest. But alas ! one morning, on going to feed the

birds, I found the “ cock ” bird in one corner with the crown of the

head bleeding and featherless. As I had frequently detected the

Guianas fighting with the Black-cheeks the case seemed clear. I

caught the “ cock ” up easily enough. The hen was sitting in the

barrel, incubating. In trying to catch her she escaped and I detected

three eggs. However, she did not return to the nest, so I caught

her up and caged the two together, having first given the wounded

bird a good roasting, the sovereign remedy, as Lord Tavistock points

out, for all sick birds. In two or three days an egg was laid, and

In a couple of days after that I turned the birds into another aviary

with a covered inner flight. They quickly settled down again and the

hen bird was very busy carrying nesting material and spent much

time in the outer flight when the birds were let out. I thought it odd

the cock bird did not appear more often, but put it down to timidity

and to the fact that it had been almost scalped. But he often did

appear and even carried nesting material at times. Things went

well for quite a while, but on December 29th I went to look at my

birds at night and found the cock bird with his scalp quite raw

again, evidently from recent injury and as dead as a door nail.

I was perplexed. On picking it up and examining it, I found to

my utter astonishment the bird was no cock but a hen, and died

from egg-binding. There had been a sudden cold snap and no doubt

that caused it. My theory is that the pain caused the bird to rub

its head on the roof of the nesting barrel or against a tree trunk and

was not caused by another bird at all, as the scalp wound did not

appear to be caused by another parrakeet’s beak. If I had only

searched more carefully night and morning, before it was too late,



