24 BED-BUMPED PABBAKEET. 



alone incubates, her mate rendering her no assistance, his cheerful 

 song, as he sits at no great distance from the hollow log that contains 

 the precious eggs, excepted; for he does not even feed her, nor, as 

 far as we have been able to ascertain, does he feed the young until 

 these have left their natal log, and are able to fly about after him, 

 and importune him for food. 



We have found that half a cocoa-nut husk cemented into a small 

 box made a capital nest that was much appreciated by these birds, 

 which do not seem to care about excavating a dwelling for themselves, 

 when a ready-made one has been placed at their disposal. 



We fed on seeds only, canary, millet, hemp, oats of which they were 

 particularly fond, and dry bread-crumb : Dr. Russ, however, recommends 

 the following diet when the birds are nesting: — "Egg-bread, ants' 

 eggs, softened rice and fruit; also mealworms, green food, and poppy 

 seed." 



We cannot endorse his further statement that they are sociable with 

 little birds, " Vertraglich unter Meinen Vogeln" , but they do nest readily 

 (leiclit), and bring up three or four broods in the season, as the doctor 

 further relates : they are hardy, too, and will pass the coldest and 

 most severe of our winter out of doors without injury. 



The male and female are very much attached to each other, so much 

 so that if one of them should escape, it will, after a fly round, return 

 to its companion, and suffer itself to be captured without resistance. 



These birds are very strong on the wing, and it is quite a pretty 

 sight to see them wheeling round and round in the sunshine, or darting 

 in and out among the trees, with the foliage of which their feathers 

 harmonize so well in colour. 



We believe that, like most of the Australian Parrots, the Redrumps 

 are partially insectivorous, but they will, nevertheless, thrive perfectly 

 well without insect food. In winter it is advisable to give them plenty 

 of hemp, and they will then touch little else but that valuable and 

 highly nitrogenized diet. 



It is a pity they are so tyrannical and quarrelsome, for otherwise 

 they are very nice, and the song of the male bird, especially during 

 the season of love and courtship, is, as Mr. Wiener says, "quite sur- 

 prisingly agreeable/'' 



Dr. Bodinus, of Cologne, was the first person who bred these birds 

 in Europe, but since then they -have bred in innumerable aviaries in 

 this country, as well as on the continent; and in fact more Redrumps 

 are now yearly bred in Europe than are imported from Australia, and 

 the price has fallen to about twenty or twenty-five shillings a pair. 



The young resemble their parents in a general way when they leave 



