07 i the Breeding of the Red-faced Lovebird. 351


had been confined in and partly by their each having a clipped

wing. By the way, I cannot understand why it should be

thought necessary to clip the wings of this bird more than the

other Lovebirds, which seem to be mostly brought over intact.

On my return home I looked up my biggest cage, turned them

out into it, and placed it in the hottest part of the kitchen I could

find, thinking that the artificial heat would induce the feathers

to grow again. I had been advised to catch each bird and draw

the stubs of the quill feathers, but I did not think it advisable to

do this, as the shock might prove very injurious to these nervous

birds who almost seem afraid of their own shadow. I was told

that these birds when caught in Africa are fed solely on rice, so

failing to get a supply of paddy rice (that is rice in the husk) I gave

them ordinary table rice which they seemed very fond of. After

a week or so of this treatment I was pleased to see the bottom of

the cage plentifully strewn with shed stubs and feathers, and to

see evidences of new ones growing in their place. The weather

now began to turn warmer, enabling me to place the cage out of

doors for a few hours every day, and this began to make a

wonderful difference in their appearance. I found they very

much disliked the direct rays of the sun, invaiiably sitting under

the end of the cage which I kept covered with rhubarb leaves.

I was now able to leave them out for a longer period every day,

only taking them indoors for the night, and I added canary seed

to their supply of rice. Millet I never tried them with. The

result of this treatment was that, with one exception, they could

all fly, and one fine day I turned them out into a large well-

planted aviary, and it was a pleasure to see how they enjoyed

themselves.


For the first few weeks the foliage seemed to be getting

thinner, and the suspicion in my mind soon became a certainty

that the Lovebirds were doing their level best to wreck the aviary

and were showing a love of pruning only to be equalled by a

professional gardener. I11 about a week they nearly stripped a

large apple tree of its leaves and shoots. Their mode of

procedure was as follows :—Starting at the bottom of a twig they

would steadily crawl up it nipping off the leaves one by one until

they reached the top, when they would fly down and begin again.



