Flit (her Notes on ihe Black winged Lory, 211 
some, I think it is 110 wonder this lovely group of birds has not 
been so popular with aviculturists as the\' deserve. In point of 
tauieness and amusing ways, if not in brilliancy of colour also, 
no other members of the Parrot family can at all compare with 
them. True some kinds are excessively noisy, and peihaps all 
are really more suited for aviaries than cages. Still, I see no 
reason why they should not be kept as cage pets also, provided 
that the bottom of the cage is covered with peat litter, which 
acts as a deodorizer. I remember a London dealer once telling 
me that canary seed was the best food for Lories, and that after 
they were once used to it they lived for years. I can no more 
believe that canary seed is a suitable diet for them than I can 
believe corn would be good for Eagles. I don't doubt but what 
some may be induced to eat it after a time, but we all know that 
some birds get depraved tastes in captivity, and eat unnatural 
things. Nature certainly never intended Lories with brush 
tongues to eat .seed, and in the crops of all the many species I 
have shot, I have never found anything but clear honey. There 
are various reasons though why honey as we eat it should not be 
given to them in captivity. That milk is a good substitute for 
this is proved, I think, by Mr. Brook having successfully bred 
the rare Black Lory, Chalcop^ittacus ater, this year, which I have 
always considered a somewhat delicate species, although I am 
sure Mr. Brook would say it was just the opposite. 
I should certainly be nervous about giving mealworms to 
any Lory, especially if it had been used to a liquid diet, which 
might render them liable to fits if they took anything solid after 
it. The natives of the Moluccan Islands without exception feed 
all Lories on more or less sloppy boiled rice with an occasional 
piece of banana. Judging by their short lives even this appears 
to be too solid a diet, and half paralyzed birds are quite a 
common sight, the results of fits to which they all eventually 
succumb. 
Judging from the plate, Mr. Millsum's Black-winged Lory 
does not appear to have been anything like so rich a coloured 
specimen as Mr. Brook's. Or it might be that it is a difficult 
colour for an artist to reproduce. The blui.sh purple across 
the face is not so intense nor the crown so dark a red. This 
