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Congratulatory broods.



insert as many advertisements of such stock as possible. All money

thus received for the Fund to be sent to our Publishers, Messrs.

Adlard & Son & West Newman, Ltd., and not to the Editor. Birds

thus offered for sale will be advertised in a special column set apart

for them.


The Council will be grateful to all who thus not only benefit

general ornithology, but also render yeoman service to aviculture,

which has become a national asset.



CONGRATULATORY BROODS,


By Hubert D. Astley.


If no one else congratulates me, at any rate I pat myself on

the back at having a brood of five Queen Alexandra Parrakeets

(Spathopterus alexandrce), which have left the nest. There were six,

but the baby of the lot died owing to being too small to reach up to

the aperture of the nesting-box, when the mother no longer went in,

but perched outside to feed them, and so the larger ones evidently

trampled the poor little bird down. 1 had begun to fear that my

stock of these rare and beautiful Parrakeets would die out, for since

I left Benham Valence five years ago, they had not nested ; in fact

there have been no young for certainly six years from the same old

birds. I notice—I forget whether I did so on previous occasions—

that the pink throat of the nestlings extends slightly on the breast

in the form of edgings to the grey-green feathers, which scalloping

does not appear in the adult plumage. The males can be distin¬

guished by a patch of dull mauve on the forehead, and by a larger

area of pink on the throat, which is also of a brighter colour than in

the females. The five young are exceedingly vigorous, and the

mother feeds them when I am standing close to them, so close that

their tails brush against my coat. It is astonishing how quickly she

can fill their crops, for so little food seems to be regurgitated at each

feeding.



(To be continued.)



