Stray Notes



61



afield in search of a nesting site. Only once have eggs been laid, in

a nest close to the fence, and as far from the pond as the birds could go.


A Curious Grey Parrot.— I hear that Mr. Delacour has obtained

a very curious and rare variety of the Grey Parrot, in which the whole

of the plumage is pink, with the exception of a few feathers in the body

and the quills, which are of the normal grey colour.


Colour Varieties of the Budgerigar. —Colour varieties in

birds are always interesting, and occasionally they are more beautiful

than the normal state. In the Budgerigar, for instance, the blue variety

is extremely beautiful, and it is very satisfactory to know that this race

has not died out as was at one time feared that it might on account of

the War. Two or three of our members have stocks which they are

doing their best to increase. There are now three distinct varieties,

the well-known yellow, the blue, and the olive. Mr. Astley bred a white

bird, which most unfortunately died. He kindly sent me the dead

bird, which I was very glad to add to my collection of skin specimens.


Comparing a series from the normal green bird to the white one

finds that the colour in the former is composed of yellow and blue, the

former a pigment, the latter being produced by feather-structure,

combined with black pigment. In the yellow variety the black pigment

has disappeared ; in the blue variety the yellow pigment is absent.

Mr. Astley’s bird is not a true albino, as it had dark eyes. It is a very

washed-out blue, still showing faint traces of blue on the rump. The

yellow pigment has entirely gone, as in the typical blue, and the black

pigment is only present to a very small extent.


A Splendid Peregrine.— The Zoological Society has received as

a present from Major W. H. Rawnsley an extremely fine female

Peregrine Falcon in most faultless condition. The letter accom¬

panying the bird states that “ she was caught on a trawler off Iceland

in a fog in October, 1920, and fed on fish from the time she was caught

till purchased in Aberdeen a week or so after landing. She is very tame

in the sense of not being frightened at people, but she is too vicious to

train. She eats off her jesses at once, and fights like mad when we try

to hood her. She will fly to the hand for food.”



