34 SWIFT PABBAKEET. 



shoulders and upper part of the primaries blue, the under side of the 

 wings red, the tail red with a blue tip, the breast and belly green 

 with a yellow shade, necked with red, the beak is reddish yellow, 

 the legs and feet grey, and the eyes black. 



The female bears a general resemblance to her mate, but is rather 

 smaller. 



The usual diet of these birds in captivity is canary and millet, but 

 boiled oats may be advantageously added, and, during the breeding 

 season, bread crumbs, coarse oatmeal, and a few insects of some 

 kind, black-beetles or tipulee rather than mealworms, but the latter, 

 cautiously, in preference to none. 



The Swifts make their nesting-places in the hollow boughs of the 

 gum trees of their native land, and lay from four to seven white eggs, 

 a little larger than those of the Budgerigar, and have usually two 

 broods during the season, which extends from September to January. 

 We have not heard of their having been bred in captivity as yet: in 

 fact they are so seldom imported, that but few amateurs have had 

 an opportunity of making the attempt. 



In the Zoological Society's Gardens the Swifts are fed on boiled 

 rice sweetened, and are not allowed any water; under such a course 

 of treatment it is not surprising that there should frequently be a 

 change of tenants in the cages allotted to them. 



The price is about £3 a piece, or very nearly the weight of the bird 

 in gold: it would consequently be well worth the while of any amateur 

 to try and breed them, and this we intend doing as soon as practicable; 

 for hardy as they are, when once fairly acclimatised, easy to feed, at 

 least in comparison with many other species that are kept and bred 

 without difficulty, none of the elements of success are wanting in their 

 case. 



While it is admitted on all sides by aviarists that immense pleasure 

 and satisfaction is found to exist in the successful rearing of a brood 

 of even the commonest birds of exotic origin that are kept in cages 

 or aviaries, the enjoyment is enhanced ten-fold, nay a hundred, even 

 a thousand-fold, when the fostering care of a painstaking amateur 

 results in the appearance on the scene of a young family of rare and 

 beautiful birds, which have never before been bred in England. What 

 a wonderful amount too of pleasant gratification there is in penning 

 a full, true, and particular account of that success for some bird-loving 

 friend, or even for a gentle public enamoured of bird-life, and only 

 too anxious to go and do likewise. 



Well, everyone must make a beginning, and if the advice given in 

 these pages is exactly and carefully followed, we flatter ourselves that 



