on red rosellas at liberty.



335



to aviculture the temptation proved too great to resist. He was in

nice condition, and after spending some time in a big cage with a

bath and a plentiful supply of green food and other luxuries, he

began to display and bring up food from his crop, clearly showing

that he wanted a mate. A hen mealy rosella was obtained and placed

in a cage beside him, and for two or three weeks everything seemed

to be going well. The mealy was filled with intense admiration for

her companion and displayed to him with an energy and persistence

I have never seen equalled. The yellow-mantle, though less ex¬

travagant in his demonstrations, showed great anxiety and distress

if the mealy was taken out of his sight, joined with her in defiant

tail-wagging' and calling if a whistle in the street suggested the

presence of a rival pair of parrakeets, and was obviously anxious

to fight a cock mealy rosella I showed him one day, out of curiosity

to see what he would do. When however the hen mealy was

allowed to enter the yellow mantle’s cage he fled from her in horror

and all her blandishments were powerless to reassure him both on

that day and on the many subsequent occasions when I tried them

together. He continued to show uneasiness if she was altogether

removed, but it was evident that, while unable to reconcile himself

to the idea of a solitary existence, he could not make up his mind

to accept as his wife a person of such abandoned manners. Of

course his behaviour may be put down to cowardice and the natural

antipathy which exists between mealy and red rosellas (this how¬

ever is often overcome in confinement) ; but such an explanation

does not account for his anxiety to attack the cock mealy; nor is it

quite compatible with his fearless display of anger towards his

former admirer when he had gladly accepted as his bride a little

hen Stanley, half bare from feather plucking and generally the most

unattractive object imaginable.


The three cock rosellas at liberty took a long' time over the

selection of their mates. After “ walking out,” so to speak, with a

hen for a few weeks, they would decide she wasn’t suitable and

exchange her with a neighbour, a habit I have not noticed in any

other broadtail. One of the cocks was a very vain bird, who con¬

sidered himself too good for the society of any of his near relatives

and so disgusted his would-be bride by his indifference that in the



