Correspondence, Notes, etc.


CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



317



A FIGHTING PENNANT PARRAKEET.


Sir,—W ith regard to Mrs. Hartley’s letter my experience is that

hand-reared Platycerci are very apt to be vicious, but I have looked upon it

as sexual. I thought it was confined to the males and that they would let

women handle them. Either Mrs. Hartley’s is a fighting female, or the

cocks will go for either sex.


Dr. Butler will no doubt tell Mrs. Hartley that her Pennants’ feather

plucking is the result of sop. I should like to ask, Is it feather eating or

feather picking? I have had birds which eat feathers, and I always think

there is something in the food—some form of insect food, probably that

they lack. Pennants wild may have a different diet to Rosellas.


F. G. Dutton.



IS THE GOULDIAN FINCH POLYGAMOUS ?


Sir,—A t the commencement of the breeding-season I fixed up five

straw-hats upon the back wall of my smaller outdoor aviary ; and, among

other birds, I turned out one pair of Poephila gouldice and one hen of the

variety first named P. mirablis. The male P. gouldice and the female P.

mirablis were the pair from which I bred in the same aviary last year, and

they took possession of the same old hat as a nesting receptacle.


About a week ago I heard young birds being fed in this hat, but was

surprised to see the cock bird examining the others: I supposed that he

was trying to deceive me as to the location of the nest.


This morning the same thing occurred ; but, to my surprise there

appeared to be young in the nesting-receptacle to the right of the first nest,

the cock bird repeatedly put his head in through the opening, and there

was a distinct sound of nestlings being fed: shortly afterwards the hen P.

gouldice visited the same hat, so that I was forced to the conclusion that

both hens must have young.


After feeding, the cock bird went to each of the five hats, putting his

head into the entrance-hole and pretending to feed ; but I only heard

sounds of young from the two visited by the liens. If there are young in

any of the other hats they can only be hybrids, for it is hardly likely that a

hen Gouldian finch would lay and hatch a second time before the young of

the first nest had flown, though if the latter always develop as slowly as my

last year’s nestlings it seems not impossible.


There is a pair of Yellow-rumped Finches in the same aviary, neither

of which I have seen for the past week: but they were very health}' so that

I should hardly tliiuk they can have died leaving orphans to the care of

P. gouldice. A. G. Butter.



