PASSERINE PARRAKEET. 39 



seed to any other, but eating freely of bread soaked in cold water, 

 and squeezed nearly dry: they do not seem to care much for green 

 food, but nibble a little fresh grass now and then. 



They do not drink much, and we have not seen them bathe. 



Their cry is harsh, and loud, but is not very frequently heard : the 

 pairs converse with one another in a little subdued chatter, that sounds 

 rather prettily, but they are usually silent and undemonstrative when 

 under observation, which, as they are very quick, is not of frequent 

 occurrence without their knowledge. We have watched one, through 

 a loop-hole, for a quarter of an hour at a time, and have never seen 

 him budge, his keen black eye fixed intently on ours all the while; 

 and as soon as we looked away, he was off like a shot to the furthest 

 corner of the aviary. 



Although so timid at other times, the hen Blue Wing sits as devotedly 

 on her eggs as any bird with which we are acquainted, even suffering 

 her cocoa-nut husk to be taken down and carried to a distance without 

 deserting her charge. 



In their wild state these birds breed in the hollow branches of 

 trees, but in the bird-room or aviary seem to prefer a medium-sized 

 cocoa-nut husk for their nesting-place: they make no nest, properly 

 so called, but content themselves with removing the superfluous fibre 

 from the interior, and smoothing it down for their use. 



They are better kept in a place by themselves, two or three pairs 

 together, but are not to be trusted to the tender mercies of Budgeri- 

 gars, Madagascars, or Red-faced Love-birds. A male, however, will 

 mate with a female Madagascar (Agapornis cana), and even, a friend 

 writes us, with a female Red-face [Agapornis pullaria), but whether 

 the progeny of such unions, if progeny there were, would be capable 

 of reproduction, as another acquaintance of ours is inclined to believe, 

 we cannot say, though we doubt the fact: but if so, these three birds 

 would be simply local varieties of the same, and not three distinct 

 species as they are generally considered to be. 



Will some of our readers make the experiment, and kindly acquaint 

 us, in due time, with the result? 



There is another species of Love-bird that is often confounded with 

 that under consideration: the resemblance between the two is so con- 

 siderable that even Dr. Russ considers it an open question whether it 

 is anything more than a variety of the ordinary Blue-winged Parra- 

 keetj but we think it is. In the first place it is a decidedly larger 

 bird, has a smaller beak, and the only blue about its person is on the 

 under wing coverts, where it is not, of course, seen unless the bird 

 is flying. 



