120 BUDGEBIGAB. 



have been for a long time,, 12s. 6d. and 15s. a pair: while lately they 

 could have been purchased for about 8s. a couple: at the latter price, 

 however, they "pay" well, for they are frugal birds, cost little to keep, 

 and multiply with extraordinary rapidity. 



As a rule Budgerigars do not interfere with other birds, but it is 

 better to keep them in an enclosure by themselves, or associated with 

 Cockatiels: the Finches tease them, and fill their nests with hay and 

 rubbish; while the various Love-birds are quarrelsome, and Turquoisines, 

 Eed-rumps, et hoc genus omne would soon make an end of the Undu- 

 lated folk: still we have known vicious Budgerigars that not only fought 

 among themselves, but committed murderous assaults upon the other 

 inmates of the aviary; and should such an evilly-disposed individual 

 be discovered in a flock, he, or, more frequently, she, had better be 

 removed, and condemned to solitary confinement for the remainder of 

 her, or his, days: it is just such perversely tempered birds that make 

 the best and most familiar pets; they have apparently been slighted, 

 or injured by their own kind, and find that consolation in the society 

 and companionship of their owner which is denied them by their con- 

 geners. 



A lady having written to us to inquire how she should pronounce 

 the word Budgerigar, a native term signifying "pretty bird", we 

 reply: Bud-ger-ee-gar— the first "g" soft, as in geranium; and the 

 second, hard, as in garden. 



