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Some Hints on Parrot-Keeping.



A few of the larger seeds will do no harm, but they seldom seem to

care for them. Grass-parrakeets are very peaceable with other birds,

but are rather more sensitive to cold than the platycerci.


Elegant Grass Pareakeet ( Neophema elegans). — The

largest of the group, like all its relatives, highly susceptible to

septic fever. It is very fond of grass and other green food. The

hen has less blue on the forehead than her mate.


Blue-winged Grass-parrakeet ( Neophema venusta ), also

called ‘ Blue-banded Grass-parrakeet.’ Very like the Elegant

but of a duller, darker and less golden green and with more blue on

the wing. The hen has much less blue on her forehead than the

cock—often only the merest trace—and young birds are less blue on

the wing than old ones. Gould asserts that in N. elegans the blue

frontal band extends behind the eye and in N. venusta it does not,

but the distinction only applies to adult cocks, as I have seen no hen

elegans in which the frontal band did not stop on reaching the eye.


Turquoisine Grass-parrakeet (Neophema pulchella). —A

very distinct species in which the markings are different from those

of its commoner green relatives. The cock is readily distinguishable

from the hen by the possession of a small chestnut patch on the

wings. The Turquoisine appears to be on the verge of extinction,

a lamentable circumstance for which aviculturalists both in England

and on the Continent are much to blame, as the bird was at one

time freely imported and bred so readily in captivity that it might

easily have been preserved in a state of semi-domestication.


BOURKE’S Parrakeet ( Neophema bourkei). —A fairly hardy

little bird, rather less subject to septic fever than others of the genus.

Some adult cocks have a broad blue band across the forehead, but in

others this is nearly or entirely absent, and the sexes may be most diffi¬

cult to distinguish as they are of exactly the same size. Bourkes,

especially when young, are very apt to dash themselves violently

against the sides of their aviary in moments of sudden panic and all

glass and wire netting affording facilities for this method of suicide

should be protected by string netting or sacking. Bourkes are not

so fond of green food as their near relatives and a constant supply

is not necessary when they are not breeding. Nesting pairs are

best kept separate as I have had birds killed through fighting.



