All r'xjhtit referred. J 
Ski'temhek, lyiU. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE — 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 
The Uvaean Parrakeet. 
(Ni/mpJiicus uvcccnsis). 
By Weslky T. Pa(;i:, F.Z.S., etc. 
I have never kept this s])ocies, as they only appear on 
the market at rare intervals, and then either when my ace.om- 
moclation was too full up or when I did not feel I could 
afl'ord the high figure asked for them. However I have studied 
the species at the Zoo and in friends' aviaries, but though 
the species has been long known to aviculturists it does not 
appear to ho properly understood and the specimens so far 
imported have mostly enjoyed but a short life in this 
country: so I consider a comi)ilation of the experience of those 
wiio have kept it will be the most practical coui'se 
to take, and with Mr. Goodchild's beautiful and life like 
drawing before us, a description of their plumage is quite 
uncalled for. 
The Hon. and Eev. Canon Button has had this species 
on more than one occasion. His first specimen only lived 
a day or two; later he had eight at once, but they soon died 
oil one by one (vide B.N., Vol. \ III., p. 211). 
Canon Button writes in the Avicultural Magazine, Vol. 
Ill, p. 130, respecting seven which he possessed in 1897, 
which unfortunally did not live long, as follows: — 
"I am persuaded it is a food dillieulty. I was told thej- 
"had been l)rought over on paddy, hemp, canary, and monkey nuts. 
"1 have tried bananas and grapes: they were not approved of. I 
"have also given mihet, hemp, canary, boiled rice, boiled Indian 
"corn, bread and milk, sponge cake, pea nuts, and chilies; every- 
"thing is easily eaten at first: the ones tliat were the first to 
"succumb eating seed till almost the very last. But these later 
"ones refuse food— though one of them likes to have bread and 
"milk given it occasionally." 
Mr. R. Phillips writes in the same journal respecting 
