6 
Grass Parrakccts in Captivity. 
regular breeders being a hen with one foot missing), but with 
no resuh, the birds being kept either in cages or in small 
covered aviaries. I started this season with much better aviary 
accomodation, my stock consisting of three pairs and an odd 
hen. On the first night they were turned out a violent thunder- 
storm occurred and next day there were two pairs and an odd 
hen, the others having killed themselves against the wire in 
their fright. I registered a vow never to turn another Grass 
Parrakeet into an unprotected wire enclosure, caught up the 
survivors, put in the string netting and returned the birds. I 
expected the usual clear eggs, as the summer was well advanced 
and the birds had been caged all winter, but whether it was 
the roomy open-air flight, or the fact that I was using a cock 
hitherto untried, I cannot say, but an agreeable surprise 
awaited me and the best pair not only hatched their four eggs, 
but reared their young to maturity on a diet of seed and ground- 
sel. The behaviour of the old birds while incubating and feeding 
their young did not differ materially from that of Broad-tail 
Parrakeets, i.e. the hen alone sat, and both sexes fed the 
nestlings. When I first saw the latter they had just got on the 
wing and were nearly as big as their parents, though their tails 
were not fully grown. The conspicuous blue wing patch was 
replaced by green, and their beaks were of the peculiar pale 
colour seen in very young Rosellas. A spell of cold heavy rain 
in October made one of the young birds show signs of an incipi- 
ent chill, so I brought the whole family indoors into comfortable 
winter quarters. 
With Bourke's Parrakeets I have been, on the whole, 
unfortunate, though it is the hardiest member of the group. 
Some years ago there were quite a number in this country, but 
I fear they have now been allowed to die out, and I do not know 
of anyone who still keeps them. 
My first were given me by a friend who had bred quite a 
lot. As I had no aviary accommodation at the time I tried them 
at liberty with cut wings, but the experiment ended disastrously 
some dying of chill and the rest providing a meal for a barn 
owl. Later I acquired two breeding pairs and an odd cock. 
Three spent the winter in a very large, partly heated aviary with 
an outdoor flight, and the others in an indoor aviary, also 
