114 BUDGERIGAR. 



to pluck out the stumps of the wing feathers that had been cut, but 

 it is better not to do so, as the longer they are dependent on their 

 owner for locomotion, the less danger there will be of their relapsing 

 into wildness, when they have regained the power of flight. 



White millet is the best food for these pretty little Parrots, but 

 canary-seed may be added as a variety now and then; they require a 

 constant supply of tufts of grass, and a handful of hay-seed thrown 

 down on the aviary floor, will give them much pleasure, and keep them 

 employed for hours: they also love to whittle a log of soft, or half 

 rotten wood, and the aviarist who has the welfare of his pets at heart, 

 will provide for their amusement, as well as for their bodily wants. 



It has been advised to give them egg food, and bread and milk 

 sop; both are not only unnecessary, but injurious: we have, more than 

 once, expressed our belief that many Parrots were partially insec- 

 tivorous in their habits, but the Budgerigar is not of these: during 

 a long and tolerably extensive experience with these birds, we have 

 never seen one touch an insect of any description, although access to 

 such diet was generally within their reach. 



When the Budgerigar has young ones to feed, he will require an 

 addition to his ordinary diet, in the shape of oats, either given in 

 their natural condition, or boiled until soft, strained, and left to grow 

 cold: the crumb of stale white bread, soaked in cold water, and then 

 squeezed nearly dry, will also be necessary, for half-a-dozen young 

 Parrots take a good deal of feeding, and there is clanger, if only dry 

 food is allowed, of the supplies falling short, and the young growing 

 up either stunted or deformed. 



Upon the father devolves the principal part of the duty of rearing 

 the little ones, no less than of providing for the wants of the female 

 while she is sitting on her eggs; for unlike the Cockatiel, the male 

 Budgerigar takes no part in the task of incubation, and it will be 

 readily understood that an abundant supply of food requiring com- 

 paratively little preparation will enable him to fulfil his important duties 

 with less strain on his own organization, than if all the edible substances 

 placed at his disposal were dry seeds that had to be three parts 

 digested in his own crop, before they become fit for assimilation by 

 the little ones. In Southern Australia, where the Budgerigars are 

 found, they feed exclusively on the seeds of the indigenous grasses, 

 which, at that season of the year, are soft, or at least never as dry 

 and hard as the millet and canary-seed that are given to them in this 

 country; and as one of the first conditions of a successful rearing of 

 foreign birds in captivity, is to assimilate their diet as closely as possible 

 to that of which they partake in their native woods, no more need be 



