Some Hints on Parrot-Keeping.



353



a hen, the other a cock Goldfinch. These little birds are very

beautiful in their black and gold livery ; the male when wild has a

delicate shell pink bill, which I find is lost after moulting in captivity.

The call-birds were soon hard at work attracting one wild bird after

another, which after capture were placed in an extra cage brought

for the purpose. We got about a dozen in all and some Bobolinks

also. I had a special cage made to convey them back with me to

Ireland. Shortly after this I had to leave for home, being recalled

by an urgent wire on account of the labour troubles. The voyage

home was uneventful with the exception of seeing the grand sight of

twenty-two icebergs together at the same time. Our ship was

visited by a female red-breasted Nuthatch ( Sitta canadensis) in the

gulf of St. Lawrence.


Birds of all kinds are plentiful as well as tame both in the

United States and in Canada, (and it is a most enjoyable place for

field study for any ornithologist) from the lively little Chickadee to

the great blue Heron on the silent marsh, with the full feeling of

freedom which in Canada alone we can grasp in its overwhelming

vastness.



SOME HINTS ON PARROT-KEEPING.


By The Marquis op Tavistock.


(Continued from page 307).


Platycerinae .— A large family of AUSTRALASIAN PARRAKEETS

which includes among its representatives many of the most graceful

and beautiful of living birds.


Platycerci (True Broadtail Parrakeets). —Food : Canary,

millet, wheat, oats* a little hemp or sunflower, fruit (especially

apple) and green food. All the true Broadtails can be wintered out

of doors when properly hardened off, but all are sensitive to cold

when newly imported and few can stand, in winter, a damp or

draughty aviary which gets little sun. They will live in cages but

are not really suited to cage life, as their beautiful plumage is very

apt to lose its brilliance after a year or two of close confinement.

As pets, too, they are a failure, having no talent for talking, and being

difficult to tame, and when tamed excitable and treacherous and usually



