78 TUBQUOISINE. 



nut husks, and small boxes, though we prefer the former, and when 

 he has a young family to be provided for, oats and crumbs of stale 

 bread must be added to his daily bill of fare, and upon such rations 

 he will rear a numerous family without any fuss or bother whatever. 



In their wild state these birds are natives of the eastern coasts of 

 Australia, not penetrating very far inland, and usually consorting in 

 small companies of six or eight individuals, which are probably an 

 old pair, and their offspring of the year. In her native country the 

 female Turquoisine has two broods in the season, of from three to 

 five each; but in domesticity she is almost as indefatigable a breeder 

 as the Cockatiel, producing from three to five broods in the year, and 

 laying from four to eight eggs each time. Incubation lasts about 

 eighteen days, but it is rather difficult to ascertain exactly, as she is 

 apt to resent interference, and, if much molested, to forsake her nest. 



As far back as 1861 the Turquoisine was bred in Germany, and in 

 Belgium; and in the London Zoological Gardens some of these birds 

 have been bred almost every season for many years back. 



A good many of these charming Parrakeets are annually reared on 

 the continent, especially in Belgium and in Germany, while even in 

 our own cold and changeable climate a brood of young Torquoisines 

 is not by any means of such rare occurrence, as might be imagined 

 by persons unacquainted with foreign birds and their wonderful adap- 

 tability to all kinds of adverse circumstances and conditions. 



Few members of the Parrot family are more elegant and graceful 

 in figure than the Turquoisine; and, generally speaking, they are par- 

 ticularly quiet and amiable birds; exceptions to this rule, however, 

 occur now and then, and the connoisseur would do well to ascertain 

 the disposition of a particular pair before giving them their liberty in 

 a mixed aviary, where, occasionally, some of these habitually gentle 

 birds have been known to play the tyrant over their smaller and more 

 defenceless companions. But birds of all kinds vary so much in 

 character and disposition that it is almost impossible from experience 

 of a dozen individuals of any variety, to predicate what the idiosyncracy 

 of the thirteenth will be, and caution should always be observed when 

 introducing any bird, or birds, no matter how reputedly gentle and 

 amiable, into an aviary that is already occupied by tenants of the same, 

 of kindred, and especially of totally distinct species. 



The Turquoisine on first arrival in this country is decidedly delicate, 

 but a little careful nursing will soon restore it to health; the only 

 complaints we have known these birds to suffer from are egg-binding 

 and disease of the liver; the latter induced by too liberal an indulgence 

 in hemp-seed; canary-seed, with a few oats, and a morsel of dry bread 



