70 BOOK PEPLEB. 



Last August I succeeded iu getting a cock bird, and at once put 

 him in, and up to the present he is in perfect health. My aviary- 

 contains Pennant's Rosella, Port Adelaide Rosella, Barnard and Bauer 

 Parrakeets, and Cockatiels. 



Oats and canary seed are the main food I give, though I add to 

 them buckwheat, hemp, and inga, by way of variety; Indian corn I 

 do not find they care for. The Peplers feed chiefly on oats, as, indeed, 

 I find most of them do, taking them in preference to anything 

 else. They are very fond of bathing, and, during the late frosts, the 

 bath was often a solid sheet of ice, but no sooner had I put fresh 

 water in than they were into it. I need not say that during bath time, 

 and until they were dry, I kept the door shut. 



The Peplers I find rather shy, but very gentle birds, never molesting 

 any of the other birds ; in fact, they are always the last to come for 

 any dainties I put in. 



I give as green food, dandelions, and find all my birds delight in it; 

 eating flowers, stems, eaves, and roots ; groundsel, &c. I also 

 frequently give them willow branches with the leaves on, selecting 

 those in which some insect has laid its egg, the grub of which they 

 pick out and eat. I also give pears and apples cut up small, and 

 other fruit in season, but there is nothing they like as well as the 

 dandelion and grubs from the willow leaf. 



I have now kept Australian Parrakeets for about four years, and 

 certainly the Eock Peplers, though not the most brilliant in colour, 

 are the most beautiful in shape and the least troublesome." 



Another correspondent writes: "Some time since I saw a note in 

 The Bazaar respecting the Rock Pepler Parrakeet as not being a hardy 

 bird. I have one now in my aviary that has been in my possession 

 quite six years — an out-door aviary, summer and winter without any 

 artificial heat.'" 



The above experience tallies more nearly with our own, than that 

 of the correspondents first quoted, but we have thought it right to 

 give both sides of the question. 



