TJie Bed-faced Love-bird. 137 



between tlie sexes, but by the under side of her wings being 

 green, while those of her mate are black. 



These birds are natives of the western coast of Africa, and 

 are specially abundant in Abyssinia, where they are said to 

 bring up their young families in the hollow branch of a tree, 

 and to feed on all manner of seeds, preferring millet and 

 maize, which should also be their chief food in this country, 

 taking care that both seeds are frequently given soaked. 



The principal disease to which these birds are subject is 

 decline; brought on, I have no doubt, by confining them to a 

 dry and insufficiently nutritious diet. I have not any of them 

 in my collection at present, but if I thought of getting any 

 more, I should feed them altogether on soaked seeds, millet, 

 maize, and oats: but I hold them most uninteresting whether 

 kept in cage or aviary, for they are listless and apathetic to 

 an aggravating degree, seldom stirring from the perch where 

 they sit dozing for hours side by side, except when impelled 

 by the cravings of their appetite: they have no song that I 

 have ever heard, scarcely a squeak, and have not, I think, 

 ever learned to repeat a word. 



The only way, I imagine, to induce these birds to breed 

 in England, would be to place them in a conservatory, where 

 the temperature would continually remind them of their native 

 land, and then, if provided with suitable hollow logs, they 

 might perhaps condescend to nest; but seeing that they can 

 now be bought for a mere trifle in all the bird-shops, I do 

 not think it would be worth any one's while to try the ex- 

 periment, except, perhaps, once from curiosity. 



