60 RING-NECKED OB BENGAL BABBAKEET. 



"The first pair began to nest in April, and deposited three eggs 

 in a nest-box, which, however, they did not incubate. They have, on 

 the other hand, been successfully bred by Herr Otto Wiegand, as 

 recorded in The Feathered World for 1873, No. 19." 



The same author gives a very full description of this bird in his 

 great work, Die fremdlandischen Stuhenvogel, accompanied by a portrait 

 (xxv, Bird 120), as well as in his latest book, Die sprechenden Papageien, 

 to which we must refer our readers, as the accounts given are too 

 long for transcription into these pages, and of too interesting a nature 

 to be condensed. 



From what we have written it will be gathered that the Eing-necked 

 Parrakeet, whether hailing from India, Africa, or the Mauritius, is, on 

 the whole, a very desirable bird, and so it really is; but, at the same 

 time, it must be carefully borne in mind that all these Parrakeets have 

 tempers of their own, and shew them on occasion. 



If they are not spoiled, however, by being teased, they are amiable 

 enough, but once they have been angered into screaming*, or shrieking 

 rather, there is no enduring them in the house, let them be otherwise 

 ever so accomplished and desirable, for their incessant cries are enough 

 to give the horrors to the unfortunate person who is doomed to listen 

 to them, so that care must be taken not to irritate them, and irre- 

 trievably ruin their tempers by foolish and tantalising tricks, as so 

 many people, and not always children either, are in the habit of doing. 



The Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dtctton's account of the Ring-necked 

 or Bengal Parrakeet (Palseornis torquatus). 



This bird would be the ideal of pets, if any one could find the 

 way of successfully breaking it of screaming. One of the most lovely 

 of Parrakeets, its powers of talking are considerable, and its devotion 

 to those to whom it takes a fancy is unbounded. 



It is hardly possible to resist buying it, when one of the numerous 

 specimens that have been well-taught is offered for sale. But the cheap 

 prices at which they are often offered tell a tale in themselves. I have 

 again and again kept them: charming French specimens that did their 

 military exercises, their drum, their " As-tu-dejeune, Coco-tie?" their little 

 song: English ones that had a perfect vocabulary of sentences, and 

 one and all having that greatest merit of a talking bird, that they would 

 say them when you wanted them; but one and all, they have had to 

 go. They would not confine themselves to our speech, but would 

 indulge in their own, and there are few noises so irritating to the ear 

 as the incessant scream of the Bengal Parrakeet. 



