Some Experiences of Mealy Bosellas. 175


possible as a nesting-place. However, she is very patient and listens

to him most dutifully for a long time, finally giving a little chuckle,

as much as to say, “ Yes, dear, I know it is a most beautiful hole,

and a most wonderful hole, only unfortunately it is so small that I

cannot get into it, and even if I could, there are quite six inches of

water at the bottom, which would be bad for our eggs. Let us go

and have a look somewhere else.”


But the Brown’s and Mealy never got as far as nesting, for one

morning I noticed the latter looking ill, and a second glance showed

that she had been injured in the same way as her mate, and had

lost the upper half of her beak. Probably the Yellow-napes were

the culprits as the Bauer had been shut up some weeks before.

Thus ended my first attempt to acclimatize P. pallidiceps ; there was

nothing for it but to try again and hope for better luck.


Some weeks before the death of the last of the original im¬

portation, I had bought six young Mealies from a dealer, with which

to replenish my vanishing stock. They were in poor condition on

arrival and two died, but with warmth and good feeding I managed

to pull the rest round. Although not, as I at first thought, Blue¬

cheeked Parrakeets (P. amathusia) the new birds, which were said

to have come from North Australia, were rather different from

typical “ Moreton Bay ” Mealies. They were considerably bluer on

the neck and cheeks and some had a quantity of reddish feathers on

the crown of the head, such as are rarely seen in birds from S. E.

Queensland.


When summer arrived I turned them out with cut wings,

together with a few typical Pallidiceps that X had obtained in April

and May. A few were lost from chills, accidents, and straying, but

on the whole I was fairly lucky, and by November two pairs and an

odd hen were flying about the garden.


The paired birds came regularly to the feeding-trays, and

spent a good deal of time examining holes in trees as if with a view

to nesting ; but as most adult Broadtails at liberty go house-hunting

nearly the whole year round, I was not much disappointed when

the weeks went by and nothing more happened. The odd hen,

unlike her married kinsfolk, was a great wanderer, and in company

with a young wild-bred Port Adelaide of her own sex, was often



