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Pintail Nonpareil. 
Pintail Nonpareil (Erythrura prasina). 
By R. Succitt. 
I purchased two pairs of youiiL;' Pintails in innnature 
plumage in the summer of 1905; three of them died within a 
week, but the fourth, a male, assumed adult pluma.ge and lived 
in the outdoor aviary until January ist, 1906, when, thoui^li in 
apparently good health the previous day, I found him dead. 
Paddy rice (i.e., rice in the husk) is their principal food 
in a wild state, and this is absolutely necessary to their well 
being in captivity — at any rate until they have developed a taste 
for millet and canary — and to their being deprived of the paddy 
I attribute the untimely deaths of the three birds. Luer, the 
London bird dealer, told me that he loses a smaller percentage 
of Pintail Nonpareils than any other birds which he imports. 
He feeds entirely on paddy rice. 
(Jn April loth, hjoS, 1 received two more pairs of young 
birds in their nest feathers: one pair I passed to Mr. Sutcliffe. 
These two pairs arrived in splendid condition, and my birds up 
to the present time (April 15th) are still in perfect health. They 
eat very little of anything except paddy rice. 
Adult Male. — Upper parts sage-green; upper tail-coverts 
vermilion; two centre tail-feathers dull crimson, the shafts 
projecting beyond the other tail-feathers, which are brown; 
flights dark ; face and throat cobalt-blue ; centre of breast rosy- 
scarlet; remainder of underparts golden-brown; beak black; feet 
flesh-colour; iris brown. 
The female is similar but duller and lacks the blue face 
and red breast. 
Young resemble the adult female. 
April 22nd, 1908. I put the Pintails into the indoor 
flight the other day, but the female was short of some feathers 
in one of her wings, so I caged her again. The male seems 
rather ill to-day. 
May 1st, 190^. Both Pintails are in splendid health, so 
I turned the cock into the outdoor aviary; the wing feathers 
of the hen are not yet sufficiently grown to permit her to fly, 
so she is still caged. 
May 5th. Although the male has only just begun to 
