PENNANT'S PABBAEEET. 143 



There are many instances recorded of these birds having been suc- 

 cessfully bred in this country, and aviary-reared specimens, quite young, 

 and scarce half the size of their parents, have been exhibited at the 

 Crystal Palace Bird- Show, on more than one occasion. 



In the aviary the Pennants will be found quiet and peaceable, pro- 

 viding they have room; and as they are eminently gregarious in their 

 wild state, several pairs, providing they really are pairs, may be kept 

 together, and will rarely interfere with each other's domestic arrange- 

 ments. 



It is really a grand sight to see a flock of these birds wheeling 

 round a water-hole in the bright sunshine, or darting across the path, 

 at no great height above the head of the spectator, when the vivid 

 reflection of the feathers on the under surface of their bodies is almost 

 dazzling in its brilliancy. 



In their native wilds these birds feed chiefly on the seeds of grass 

 and other indigenous plants, but they also eat such berries as they 

 can find, the young shoots of growing shrubs, and a good many insects 

 of different kinds, bat especially coleoptera which there abound: in the 

 house, however, they will do very well without animal food: in fact, 

 better without than with: except, perhaps, when they have young ones; 

 then, a few mealworms or cockroaches may be occasionally exhibited: 

 in a large aviary, however, there is generally a supply of insects to 

 be found sufficient to keep the inhabitants in health, unless these should 

 belong to the soft-billed tribes* 



It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to repeat that the Pennant, like 

 most of its congeners, is to be fed on a diet of seeds, such as canary, 

 hemp, millet, oats, and maize, with plenty of grass and green food, 

 also woody fibre, without which they will not thrive, so that an abun- 

 dance of logs in various stages of disintegration must be supplied for 

 their benefit. 



This Parrot is rather slow of growth, taking quite a year to reach 

 its full size; it is long-lived, and, as we have said, healthy and hardy: 

 in fact we know of no complaint to which it can be said to be subject: 

 a female, now and then, becomes egg-bound, or an individual kept in 

 a cage and dieted exclusively on hard seed, becomes constipated and 

 has fits: but judiciously fed and managed, it is as enduring as any 

 bird with which we are acquainted. 



The price varies, but seldom falls below twenty-five or thirty shillings 

 each, but they are not nearly so frequently seen in this country as, 

 from their many good qualities, one might naturally expect. 



The male has quite a musical voice, and if he screams rather loudly 

 at times, his cries are not nearly so ear-piercing as those of many of 



