The Blue-winged Love-bird. 139 



between the feathers of their hack, will cany them into the 

 hole selected for a nest. As these bits of wood mostly fall 

 to the ground during their flight, or in entering the nest, 

 extraordinary assiduity and patience are shown by the quantity 

 of splinters which a hen Grey-headed Love-bird accumulates 

 in her nest." 



The lady whose account of these birds I have already alluded 

 to, says that they carry paper and bits of twigs, as well as 

 splinters of wood into their breeding place, which is certainly 

 a curious fact, quite contrary to the general custom of the 

 Parrot family, which, with the exception of the birds under 

 consideration and the Rosy-faced. Love-birds, Agapornis rosei- 

 oollis, lay their eggs on the bare wood. 



Little is known of the habits of these pretty birds in their 

 wild state, but in the house I have found some of them 

 peaceable, although Dr. Russ warns amateurs against placing 

 them in a small cage with little birds, whose legs, he says, 

 they are apt to bite. 



They feed, in the house, on canary and millet seed, but 

 will also eat oats, hemp seed and bread-crumbs. They do not 

 appear to suffer from the cold of our winters in an unwarmed 

 room, but I have not tested their endurance out of doors. 

 The breeding season, in this country, commences about Oc- 

 tober. They are strong flyers, and active and sprightly little 

 birds. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



THE BLUE-WnfaED lOVE-BIBD. 



THIS very charming little Parrot is smaller than either 

 the Red-faced Abyssinian, or the "White-headed Mada- 

 gascarene Love-bird; in colour it is bright green, with blue 

 on the rump and large wing coverts. 



