Some Hints on Parrot-Keeping.



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Platycercince as an illustration. If you have three adult pairs of

Rosellas flying at large and desire to add to your stock by importa¬

tion, it is perfectly useless to turn the new birds out full-winged

in the hope that the others will induce them to stay; they will do

no such thing, and will only bully them and accelerate their depar¬

ture. If you have a small flock of young Rosellas which have not

yet paired, the case is rather different, and it is usually safe to allow

other young birds and even adult cocks to join them full-winged.

Adult hens, on the other hand, are intolerant of the presence of

young birds which do not belong to them, and are apt to resent

rather than welcome their company. If you have an old unpaired

cock at liberty and provide him with a wife, the latter may be

allowed to fly out and join him as soon as he begins to show an

active interest in her and visits the cage or aviary in which she is

confined. If you have a hen at liberty and get a cock to turn out

with her, the latter must be more or less in breeding condition before

he is released (particularly in the case of Parrakeets). If he is not,

the hen will either ill-treat or ignore him, and he will probably be

soon lost. Unmated Parrots of either sex will, unless very tame and

attached to their owners, wander off in search of a companion as

soon as the nesting season approaches. Cockatoos, however, which

have nested at liberty and afterwards lost their mates, seldom

leave altogether. Occasionally, when a mate cannot be obtained

for a solitary bird, a companion of the same sex will console it

sufficiently to prevent it from straying and getting lost.


Assuming that the first stage of the acclimitization experi¬

ment has gone off well and the inherent tendency of most Parrots

to wander on being released has been in some manner restrained,

future success will depend largely on the constant supply of seed or

other food, preferably in more than one place if a number of birds

are kept. Any system of feeding on what I may term an “ open ”

tray or board is quite impracticable, as after a very short time

immense hordes of Sparrows, Starlings, Greenfinches, Pigeons, Jack¬

daws and other unwelcome visitors will be attracted to the spot,

and it will cost a perfect fortune to feed them and the Parrots at

the same time. It is therefore necessary to employ a 11 trap-tray,”

i.e., a feeding tray which can, at a moment’s notice, be converted



