Breeding of Passerine Parrakeets, etc. 249 
tlieir appearance (one fell out of the nest and was killed). This 
pair is nesting again. 
The second pair (the log nesters) apparently liked their 
quarters, for very soon after their young were on the wing they 
both disappeared, and I saw nothing of them for some days, but 
the young birds continued to go in and out of the log as usual. 
Becoming anxious, I determined to see if either or both of the 
old birds had died, and I therefore knocked off the end of the 
log with a hammer, and there were both the old birds and their 
four youngsters — and the hen upon four eggs. 
It seems extraordinary that birds which are so very wild in 
the aviary should be so docile as these were, for if anything is 
calculated to disturb birds, one would think that knocking out a 
piece of wood nailed firmly to the end of the log would have 
done so. In point of fact, although the old cock and the young, 
finally escaped up the tunnel of the nest and so into the aviary, I 
had to take the hen off the nest in order to see whether she was 
crippled or not, and the reward I got for my pains was a very 
shrewd nip from her powerful beak ! 
I find Black Cheeks decidedly interesting birds to keep, 
and the way in which they dive into their nesting places is quite 
comical. They certainly, when disturbed by strangers, shriek a 
good deal, but the noise is not an unpleasant one, and they take 
little or no notice of my gardener or myself when we are in the 
aviary. Black Cheeks are easy to keep (mine feed principally on 
millet sprays) and, so far as my experience goes, are hardy ; but, of 
course, I do not know what disappointments the writer may have 
in store, since all my birds are kept in unheated aviaries. For 
productiveness, Black Cheeks compare quite favourably with 
Budgerigars, as from my two pairs I have, or had, on the wing, 
fifteen birds out of sixteen hatched. Both pairs are again upon 
eggs, and since I notice that egg shells have been carried out to 
the opening of the log nest, young birds are certainly there, 
while the "cocoa-nut buskers" will, I have little doubt, add to 
the aviary population when their eggs are due to hatch. 
