So Correspondence.


but larger, and that agrees with one I bought of the late Mr. Abrahams:

he called it the Giant Kosella. But I have had a bird sent me recently as

an Adelaide, which appears to be nothing but aver}' poor coloured Pennant,

being a rusty red instead of dark scarlet. The father of thirteen hybrids

I have bred this year with a hen Rosella is exactly like it, and it has been

in my possession about three years.


I have another that came in the same lot from Marseilles that is

more like a Yellow-rumped Parrakeet than anything else, in fact it is like

the picture in Dr. Greene's book but more brilliant, a little redder on the

rump and abdomen and the tertiaries are not so yellow. I should much

like to know what it really is. It has one great fault: as soon as its tail is

perfect after moult it bites all the feathers off short, just as though some-

one had cut them off with a pair of scissors, but it has never touched any

other feathers. C. P. Arthur.


[The Adelaide Parrakeet is not like a large Rosella but may be com-

pared to a washed-out Pennant, in which the colour, instead of being deep

crimson, is rusty red. Probably the " Giant Rosella" was a Red-mantled

Parrakeet, which is a hybrid between the true Pennant and the Rosella.

The hybrids which Mr. Arthur has reared are evidently bred between the

Adelaide Parrakeet and the Rosella. The other Parrakeet above described

is probably a Yellow-rumped Parrakeet (P. flaveolus), some specimens of

which are quite a brilliant yellow.


The illustration referred to is not particularly good. Ed.].



SWALLOWS AT THE ZOO.


Sir, — When visiting the Zoological Gardens last summer I noticed

a Swallow flying about in one of the Aviaries, which I think was occupied

by Ducks. I asked a gentleman who accompanied me if he knew how long

it had been confined there, and he told me he thought, as far as he could

remember, it had been there all last winter. Can you, or any of your

readers connected with the Zoological Gardens give me any information

about it, whether it really lived through the winter there, and whether it is

still there ? It would be really interesting to know if a Swallow lived in

the open air through our winter. WlLUAM B. Gibbins.


[The Swallow which Mr. Gibbins saw was probably the one which

lived in the Waders' aviary during the summer of 1905 and spent the winter

in the Western Aviary, which is warmed. In the spring of this year it was

again transferred to the Waders' aviary. A number of others have since

been obtained and we cannot say if the original one is still alive.


These birds seem to do well in the aviaries at the Gardens, where

they soon learn to take food from the ground. — Ed.].



PARTIAL MELANISM IN BICHENO'S AND RINGED FINCHES.


Sir, — I wonder whether you have seen the Bicheuo, or rather

Ringed Finches which have been imported recently? They have some in



