OF PARROTS. 



49 



were found to be clear ; and the other two, when 

 broken by M. de Gabriac, after an incubation of 

 twenty-five days, presented two dead foetuses, one 

 of which might have existed about six days, and the 

 other twelve. 



M. de Gabriac attributed the failure in this 

 instance to the great quantity of electricity diffused 

 through the atmosphere during the month of June 

 of that year. 



The Parrots were separated at this time, kept 

 apart for ten days, and again put together on the 

 1st July. On the 14th the female laid an egg, 

 which, as at first, was accompanied with three others, 

 on the 17th, 20th, and 23d days of the month. It 

 was always at six or seven o'clock in the evening 

 that they were laid. On the 6th August the first 

 egg was hatched, and the others on every succeeding 

 third day ; that is to say, on the 9th, 12th, and 

 15th, all in the evening, about the time at which 

 they had been laid. The observations of M. de 

 Gabriac prove, that, in this species of Parrot, the 

 period of incubation is twenty-three days. The 

 young, when first excluded from the eggs, were 

 covered with a gray down. 



Since the experiments on the breeding of Parrots 

 were made at Caen and Paris, the Collared Parra- 

 keet {Psittacus torquatus) of Senegal has been bred 

 at Paris. Places fitted for building were scooped 

 out in large blocks of wood, into which the parent 

 birds fixed their nests. 



Indeed, all the experiments which have been tried 



B 



