140 MADAGASCAR LOVE-BIBB. 



blown down, but they did not seem to mind, and when it was put 

 up again they went on adding twig to twig as if nothing had hap- 

 pened. During the process of building they unmercifully attached any 

 birds that attempted to come near the precious nest. One old Cockatoo 

 had to be kept indoors, so savagely did they attack him; and the 

 Doves, who also inhabit the garden hall, had anything but a pleasant 

 time of it. Unfortunately (in January), before the nest was finished, 

 we had to come up to London, and one day, very soon after we had 

 left, the birds disappeared : whether they lost themselves, or were stolen, 

 we never discovered. The nest, as then left, was some five feet high, 

 and about six feet in circumference at the top. The birds never showed 

 any desire to lay eggs, but probably when the warm weather came 

 they would have made some use of their stupendous structure. 



"It is heart-breaking work endeavouring to acclimatise these Parrots 

 and Cookies ; no sooner do they become very tame and affectionate than, 

 in most cases, they disappear. The climate does not appear to affect 

 them; they seem just as cheerful in winter as in summer, and we have 

 never been able to trace mortality to cold. They mostly die, I fear, a 

 sudden and violent death. A high wind, the destructive gun, destroying 

 Hawk, and possibly starvation when lost, make havoc in their ranks." 



We could go on quoting, but must refer the reader to the work 

 itself, from which we have borrowed the above highly interesting ex- 

 tracts, namely, The Animal World for 1878. 



So much for nest-building Parrots: the Love-birds carry materials 

 into the cavities they have selected for their habitation, lining the latter 

 with the fibres, etc., they have laboriously conveyed into them on their 

 backs: the Kakapo and some of the Macaws, and the Patagonian 

 Conure, occasionally, if not always, excavate dwellings for themselves 

 in banks and cliffs, but the Quaker or Monk Parrot is the only instance 

 known of a member of the family building a nest with sticks, and 

 must be looked upon as an exception to the general rule, that impels 

 these birds to rear their young in burrows. 



