BLOSSOM-HEADED PAEEAKEET. 65 



It is a pity the Blossom-headed Parrakeet should be so seldom 

 imported, and consequently expensive; though now and then a large 

 consignment arrives, such as was received, according to Dr. Puss, in 

 the year 1876, when four hundred head were to be seen at the same 

 time in the shop of Grastano Alpi of Triest, but were, strange to say, 

 all females. 



When first imported these beautiful birds are rather delicate, for 

 their Indian captors fed them on rice in the husk, which is rarely to 

 be obtained in this country, and the sudden change to our English 

 seeds, together with the transition from a warm to a comparatively cold 

 climate, too often prove fatal: once acclimatised, however, they are 

 hardy enough, and, as we have said, breed very freely in the aviary. 



Writing of this species, Mr. Gedney says: "I can bear personal tes- 

 timony to their strong attachment to their owner, for I had a bird of 

 this species given me recently, but he was inconsolable at the change, 

 and made such a hideous noise that, after a week's trial, I sent him 

 home again, much to his delight." 



Mr. Wiener's opinion of the Blossom-headed Parrakeet is that he is 

 "gentle but not particularly talented.-" 



Dr. Puss's testimony to the attractive qualities of this bird is strong, 

 and expressed in the following terms: "TTnter alien diesen oder vielmehr 

 unter alien Papageien iiberhaupt einer der schonsten, anmuthigsten und 

 liebenswiirdigsten", (Among all these, or rather among all the Parrots 

 in general, this is one of the most beautiful, most charming, and most 

 worthy of being loved,) an enconium of which we endorse every word. 



No one who has only seen a Palceomis in a cage, where certainly 

 it does not show to much advantage, can form any idea of the grace- 

 fulness and agility of the same bird on the wing; whether rising in a 

 gradually expanding spiral towards the clouds, flitting among the boughs 

 that are scarcely more vividly green than his beautifully tinted coat, 

 or darting, swift as an arrow from a bow, straight before him into 

 space. Even at comparative liberty in a good-sized aviary, he appears 

 a different bird to the pensive captive chained to a stand or ring, or 

 sitting "like patience on a monument" on the topmost perch in a bell- 

 shaped cage, or like the man with the "muck-rake" in Bunyan's im- 

 mortal allegory, groping with bedraggled tail at the bottom of his 

 enforced domicile. 



"Never keep a Parrot in a cage", was the advice given to us long 

 ago, by an esteemed and ancient friend, who was a keen lover of nature 

 and all animated things — "If you can help it" we replied, but our 

 friend shook his head, "Never keep one at all, if you cannot keep it 

 properly." 



