92 . JAVAN PABBAKEET. 



logs, trees even, will be a great boon to the inhabitants, affording them 

 not only snng retreats in which to deposit their eggs, and hatch and 

 bring np their young, but also an infinite fund of amusement, not to 

 say delight, and exercise to boot, for nearly all the Parrots are born 

 "whittlers", and if they have not a handy log ( convenient', as an 

 Irishman would say, on which to exercise their powerful mandibles, 

 they will find some other and more objectionable mode of whiling 

 away the time, by quarrelling among themselves, or even turning to 

 and plucking out their own feathers by the roots, until they leave 

 themselves quite bare. 



As soon as the young of one brood can feed themselves, it is desirable 

 to remove them to other quarters, lest they interfere with the domestic 

 arrangement of their parents, arid prejudice the production of another 

 brood. Of course overcrowding must be carefully avoided, and if a 

 separate aviary can be given to each species, so much the better; but 

 this is not absolutely, not even imperatively necessary, as most of these 

 birds, the Javan Parrakeets especially, are fond of company, and thrive 

 better in the society of their fellows than when kept alone by themselves. 



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

 Javan Parrakeet (Palseornis Javanicus). 



This bird is "the Whiskered Parrot", "P. bimaeulatus" , of Bechstein. 

 He gives it a better character for speaking than I can endorse; but 

 I only kept two specimens. Those both had the same character. They 

 were very tame and gentle, not so noisy as the Bengal Parrakeet, though 

 still gifted with a power of making one jump every now and then. They 

 were not good talkers: one never got beyond "Pretty Polly," nor the 

 other beyond a few words of Hindustani. Perhaps if their education 

 had been regularly attended to, they might have developed further 

 powers of speech; as far as tameness went, they left nothing to be 

 desired. 



Unlike the Bengal Parrakeet, neither of them seemed to care about 

 washing. They feed, like the Bengal, on canary, hemp, and millet seed. 

 I find sopped bread is a question of education with all the Palceornis 

 tribe. Some like bread and milk, some like bread and water, and 

 others will have nothing but plain water. It depends upon how they 

 have been brought up. Perhaps the same might be said of every 

 Parrot. 



