60 PETZ'S CONURE. 



The price of these small Conures varies a good deal, but twenty- 

 five to thirty shillings a pair is that usually demanded for newly-imported 

 birds by the London dealers. When acclimatised, and in good feather, 

 they would probably command a higher figure, say forty or forty-five 

 shillings for an undoubted pair, aviary moulted, acclimatised, and in 

 perfect feather and condition. We have occasionally seen them offered 

 for five or six shillings each, but not in good condition; when the 

 amateur, who does not mind a little trouble and waiting, by investing 

 in a couple of pairs, might, after an interval of a few months, sell 

 them again for at least double the amount they cost him. 



Such speculations, however, always involve a certain amount of risk, 

 for these poor dilapidated-looking birds not unfrequently die; indeed 

 more often than not, for the hardships and neglect to which they have 

 been subjected from the time of their capture in Central America until 

 their transfer, after a more or less prolonged stay in the close shop 

 of a dealer to the more considerate care of the connoisseur; have in 

 all probability undermined their constitution, and sown the seeds of 

 incurable disease, to which the poor creatures will sooner or later 

 succumb. 



When such a catastrophe has been happily avoided, or averted, these 

 Conures are perfectly hardy, and will endure in captivity on the simplest 

 diet for years; but like all the family to which they belong, they cannot 

 unfortunately be trusted in the company of other Parrakeets, much 

 larger even than themselves, for they are spiteful and quarrelsome, 

 especially in the case of nestlings, as we have more than once discovered 

 to our cost; however, if kept by themselves, for they are eminently 

 gregarious in their habits, they will do very well; and no doubt breed, 

 if any amateur should think it worth his while to give them an oppor- 

 tunity of doing so. 



