QUAKER PARRAKEET. 31 



them hovering, humming- bird-like,- in the air and pecking at a lump of 

 sugar held in one's hand. Like all the paraquet tribe, however, they 

 would not allow their heads to be scratched — the one thing above 

 all others that a cockatoo considers blissful. These two were turned 

 out about September, and early in October they began to build a 

 nest on the top of a large vase, which stood in the open hall. Of 

 course, according to their calculations, the spring should have been 

 well forward by October. They must have thought the winter un- 

 accountably mild, and the spring and summer too disgustingly cold. 



"The nest was formed of silver birch twigs, twined and matted 

 together making one solid mass. The tiny birds looked very graceful 

 flying into the hall with a long sprig of birch trailing behind them. 

 Once, when the nest was almost three feet high, the whole of it was 

 blown down, but they did not seem to mind, and when it was put 

 up again they went on adding twig to twig as if nothing had happened. 

 During the process of building they unmercifully attacked any birds 

 that attempted to come near the precious nest. One old cockatoo had 

 to be kept indoors, so savagely did they attack him; and the doves, 

 who also inhabit the garden hall, had anything but a pleasant time 

 of it. Unfortunately (in January,) before the nest was finished, we 

 had to come up to London, and one day, very soon after we had 

 left, the birds disappeared; the nest, as then left, was some five feet 

 high and about six feet in circumference at the top. The birds never 

 showed any desire to lay eggs, but probably when the warm weather 

 came they would have made some use of their stupendous erection." 



From the above interesting account of what we presume to be 

 Quaker Parrakeets, for we are not aware of any other American species 

 that build nests of twigs; we gather, first, that the little architects, 

 which by the way are as large in the body as a Bengal Parrakeet, 

 and with larger heads, were young and inexperienced; or, instead of 

 going on heaping twig upon twig until their edifice attained the 

 enormous dimensions stated, they would have roofed it over before it 

 had reached one quarter of the size, and have finished it off as neatly 

 as our own birds have done, and with greater elegance, no doubt ; for 

 they had green twigs to work with, and our Parrakeets, dry and 

 consequently inelastic branchlets only. 



Mr. Buxton calls his birds " tiny," but the Quakers can scarcely be 

 so designated correctly, except as compared with the large cockatoos 

 and inacaws of which this gentleman had a goodly stock at the 

 same time. His birds seem to have been somewhat quarrelsome and 

 aggressive in their habits, but we have never noticed that ours interfere 

 with their companions, or even resent their approach; in fact some 



