82 TURQVOISWK 



trees and shrubs alive, and if this can he done it adds very considerably 

 to the attractiveness of the coup cVoeil; but unhappily, as a rule, Par- 

 rots and Parrakeets have such an inveterate pi-opensity for "whittling", 

 that it is almost impossible to get a plant of any kind to grow in 

 any enclosure where they are kept. 



Still this can be done, as the following extract from a letter of one 

 of our correspondents fully shows: — "My conservatory is large, and 

 kept at, at least, temperate heat. The plants are Palms, Dracasnas, 

 Tree-Ferns, etc.; I have not found the plants injured except by 

 Weavers, which I have discarded, and, strange to say, Turquoisines. 

 My Budgerigars have done no harm whatever, but the Turquoisines 

 compelled me to get rid of them (very reluctantly), from their nibbling 

 the young leaves of an Euphorbia for which I gave twenty-five guineas, 

 and from its being clear that they would practically spoil it, if I left 

 them in the house." 



From the above it is apparent that trees and some birds are not 

 incompatible, although our experience with Undulated Parrakeets is the 

 reverse of that of our correspondent, we have always found them most 

 destructive to trees and shrubs, and this also is the record of M. 

 Leon Mary, from whose charming little book, La Perruclie Ondulee, 

 we shall have occasion to quote further on. 



In his interesting work on the Psittacidce, Mr. Gedney doubts whether 

 such a bird as "The Blue-banded Grass Parrakeet" has any existence 

 in fact, although described as a distinct species by several writers; 

 we believe that it is neither more nor less than a Turquoisine in its 

 brightest summer attire: but these vexed questions can only, as we 

 have already remarked, be set at rest by careful observation of the 

 birds under consideration from their cradle to their grave; and, lest 

 confinement in a restricted area should mar the symmetry of their 

 form, and the brilliance of their colouring, the aviary in which they 

 are kept should be of the largest possible dimensions, well provided 

 with trees and shrubs, which for convenience of replacing them when 

 marred by the birds, should be planted in large pots; it should be 

 well grassed too, and be provided, where practicable, with a constant 

 supply of running water. 



Birds so situated, would, by their beauty and vivacity, quite surprise 

 a spectator who had only been accustomed to see them pent up in a 

 cage, where, too often, they have barely room to turn themselves round, 

 and always look untidy, miserable, and dejected. 



