Some Hints on Parrot-Keeping.



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known bird and one of the hardiest and most amiable of the parrot

family. Unfortunately they are useless for acclimatization purposes,

being strongly migratory, utterly destitute of any homing instinct

and quite unable to fend for themselves when deprived of artificial

food during the winter months.


Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus ).—What has just been

said of the Cockatiel applies to a great extent to this charming little

bird, as far as its behaviour at liberty is concerned. It is not quite

such an inveterate wanderer when first released, but it seldom stays

more than a few months and its small size renders it peculiarly

liable to fall a prey to Owls.


LORIKEETS (. Trichoglossus ).—Most of the old writers con¬

demn the Brush-tongued Parrots as a delicate and unsatisfactory

family in confinement and after a series of unlucky experiences with

some of the commoner kinds, I am driven to heartily endorse what

they have written. Nevertheless Lories and Lorrikeets have been

kept with great success by a few aviculturalists who, I believe, have

fed them on a sweetened mixture of unseasoned marmite (made the

colour of brandy) and banana crystals, with or without the addition

of Horlick’s Malted Milk. I have at different times owned upwards

of thirty Lorikeets, but not one of them did I succeed in inducing

to partake of this mixture. Consequently I had to feed them on

seed, fruit, milk, sponge cake, fig, &c.. with the result that all, sooner

or later, fell victims to fatty degeneration of the liver and fits.

Others, I hope, will have better luck than I ! Lorikeets are not

very sensitive to cold, but they like a snug box to roost in. They

are peaceable among themselves but intensely vicious with all other

birds, attacking even those which are four or five times their size.

Tame Lorikeets stay well at liberty, but wild ones usually give

disappointing results. They are just as susceptible to digestive

troubles when flying at large as when kept in a cage.


[There are only three species, viz. : The Barraband, or Green Leek ; the

Rock Pebbler, and the Queen Alexandra, for the latter undoubtedly belongs to

this genus, although dubbed Spathopterus, merely on account of one spatulated

feather in the primaries of the male. ED.]


(To be continued).



