

132 ROSY-FACED LOVE-BIRD. 



perched upon them, quickly stripping off the leaves and gnawing the 

 buds and "bark. At first it seemed to me that this employment too 

 was due rather to a love of mischief, than to any desire to use them 

 as food; however on observing them more closely, I noticed that they 

 had at length found the wished-for nesting material. 



"Skilfully ripping off a piece of the peel, from six to ten c. in 

 length, then taking it in her beak, so that one end projects about 

 three a, the hen bends her head back, ruffles up the feathers on her 

 rump, nestles with her beak among them, smooths them down again, 

 and then the splinter remains fastened in the plumage. A second, 

 third, sixth, and even eighth are thus ripped off and secured; many 

 fall on the ground, and are taken no further notice of, many, too, are 

 pulled out by the too officious mate; at length however some remain 

 in place, the Parrot rises, flies slowly and cautiously to the nesting 

 place, enters it well laden with chips, and emerges without her burden. 



" Whether other dwarf Parrots act in a similar manner or not, I do 

 not know, but consider it probable. At present (1882) I am the only 

 person who has observed this unique habit. The whole history of birds 

 offers no parallel to it: no single bird (not even excepting the Quaker 

 Parrot, which builds large uncovered nests on trees) of all those with 

 whose habits of propagation we are acquainted, conveying the nesting 

 materials to the nest in this peculiar manner.-" 



Commenting on these remarks, Mrs. Cassirer observes: "Here you 

 will notice that Dr. Brehm chooses to ignore Dr. Russ's publications 

 with regard to the Grey Head (Agajpomis cana) entirely. The date 

 of My Birds by Dr. Brehm is 1882, and already in Dr. Russ's Hand- 

 booh of 1878 the correct account of the manner of carrying fragments 

 to the nest by both P. roseicollis and P. canus was given, pp. 254-255.'" 



"As to when the first egg was laid, how long it took to hatch", 

 continues Dr. Brehm, "and how long the cradle time of the young ones 

 lasted, I cannot say, as I feared to disturb the birds by examining 

 the nest. I was only able to ascertain that the latter was made of 

 peelings, and resembles two thirds of a hollow hemisphere, that the 

 white egg is very round and comparatively large, that the young birds 

 emerge, from two to five in number, about ten or eleven weeks after 

 the first pairing, and that their plumage is duller and darker than 

 that of their parents; and the beak blackish. They are fed by both 

 parents not only with vegetable substances, but also with Nightingale 

 food, which permits the assumption that in a state of liberty the parents 

 would also provide them with insect food. Immediately after the first 

 brood, and before the young are quite independent, the old birds 

 proceed to the second, and, it seems, the last of the season." 



