BLUE MOUNTAIN LORY. 43 



or they would very soon, as the dealers perfectly well know, soon have 

 no Lories to keep. 



Yet Blue Mountain Lories are unsatisfactory birds on the whole, for 

 such as care about a little extra trouble, that is to say; but they are 

 very beautiful, if not gifted with sweet voices; and though cruel to 

 their captive companions, are amiable enough with their master or 

 mistress, and not at all deserving of unconditional disapproval. In the 

 country they readily learn to fly out and return at the word of com- 

 mand, and a little liberty when the lime trees are in blossom, or the 

 gorse gilds the common with its myriad blooms, will enable the Blue 

 Mountain to lay in a stock of health and vigour that will stand him 

 in good stead for many days. 



Mignonette in flower, groundsel-tops, dandelion blooms, cabbage 

 blossoms, will be appreciated and gratefully received; hawthorn, too, 

 apple and pear blossoms, if the latter can be spared, wallflowers, and, 

 generally, such flowers as contain honey, especially clover, are good 

 for these birds: but beware of the golden panicles of the laburnum, 

 for they contain a deadly poison, as do the seeds, bark, roots, and 

 even the leaves of that beautiful and most graceful tree. 



No one can keep a Blue Mountain with the amount of care and 

 attention sufficient to preserve a "White Cockatoo in the rudest of health; 

 but it is a libel on a beautiful bird to say that he cannot be kept at 

 all — he can: try it, reader! follow the plan we have recommended, 

 and you will have your reward. 



The Hon. and Rev. F. G. Diction's account of the 

 Blue Mountain Lory. 



This bird may divide the palm of beauty with the Beautiful Para- 

 keet ( Psephotus pulcherrimusj amongst the Australian Parrots, and 

 would be a charming pet, but for its noisiness and its dirty habits. 



But before I take away its character in this latter respect, I ought 

 to add that I have never kept a pair trained to eat seed. I fed mine, 

 as I fed my Purple -capped Lories, on dried figs soaked in hot water 

 till they could be mashed into a pulp, mixed with soaked bun, and the 

 whole made rather moist. I find the Lory tribe thrive on this food, 

 but then it makes their droppings constant, fluid and very offensive. 

 I am bound to say that a well-known dealer has shown me these birds 

 living on canary-seed, whose plumage looked the picture of health, and 

 whose cages were, for Parrots, very clean; yet I observed that even 

 he did not venture to feed his Ceram, and Purple-capped Lories on 



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