PSEPHOTI. 31 



with its natural food in a warm and sunny clime, there is no doubt 

 the Beautiful Parrakeet could be made to breed with little difficulty, 

 for it is gentle and confiding, and soon becomes perfectly tame. 



The Hon. and Rev. F. G. Duttori 's account of the Psephoti. 



Psbphotus is the most delightful group of Parrakeets for aviary 

 purposes. The four kinds I have kept are those which one generally 

 sees: namely, Hcematonotus, or the Kedrunip; Hcematog aster, or the 

 Blue Bonnet; Multicolor, or the Many-coloured; and Pulclierrimus, or 

 the Paradise Parrakeet. 



Of Multicolor I have not had much experience, having only kept a 

 cock. This variety is the rarest, and, according to my experience, is 

 quite as delicate, if not more so than Pulclierrimus : my bird was shy, 

 too, like Pulclierrimus. He made no advances to tameness, and if I 

 recollect rightly, ended by being found dead, without rhyme or reason, 

 in his cage. 



P. hcematonotus, the Eedrump, was the first I kept, and the first 

 Paroquet I bred in a cage. I had them at Oxford in a cage some 

 four feet long and three feet high. I provided them with an old 

 candle-box, hitched on outside, and with a hole cut in the back. By 

 this means I could always see how the nesting was going on. They 

 laid two eggs, and took about seventeen days to hatch, at the end of 

 which time they brought out one young one, which they successfully 

 reared. Their nesting took place in the spring. 



The cock bird was tame: the hen less so. He was very fond of 

 poppy seed, and would come and pick it off my finger. So would 

 the hen, but less readily. But the young one was as wild as a hawk, 

 and so remained till one day it dashed out of the open door of the 

 cage, and was lost to sight. Beginners who wish to try their hand at 

 breeding Paroquets, can hardly do better than start with a pair of 

 Redrumps. 



P. pulclierrimus, the Paradise Paroquet, as dealers call it, is not only 

 the most beautiful Psejphotus, as its name says, but surely the most 

 beautiful Paroquet that exists. The vivid emerald green and brilliant 

 carmine of the cock, beautifully contrasted with the grey of the rest 

 of the plumage, make him "& joy for ever/' But " handsome is that 

 handsome does", and I regret that I cannot give any of those I have 

 kept a good character as a cage bird. They are very shy, and the 

 cock is much given to driving about the hen. They do not appear 

 to have been bred in captivity, but I do not think it impossible that 

 they should do so. A pair I had were most anxious to burrow into 



