Hiidgcrii^ars at Liberty. 
209 
Budgerigars at Liberty. 
By the ^Marquis ok Tavistock. 
The possibility of acclimatising this beautiful little 
parrakeet (M clopsittaciis iiiidiilatiis) in England suggested itself 
to aviculturists as early as the middle of the last century; it is a 
plan which, unfortunately, will never be realized, because the 
Budgerigar, unlike certain larger parrakeets which do become 
entirely independent of artificial food, is entirely harmless both 
to fruit and cultivated grain. In the summer, when grass seed 
is plentiful, it can fend for itself alright, but in winter, not being 
a bud-eater, it is speedily reduced to starvation. 
The first experiments with Budgerigars at liberty were 
tried with imported birds ; the result seems to have been always 
the same : the first summer they stayed and bred freely, but that 
autumn, or at the latest, the autunm of the year following, the 
restless, migratory instinct asserted itself, and old and young 
vanished, never to be heard of again. T have read somewhere 
of an aviculturist living near the Solway. who kept Budgerigars 
at liberty for several successive years, and, if there is any truth 
in the story, details would be extremely interesting. 
I^ast year I determined to see if I could have any success 
with Budgerigars at liberty during the summer months only, 
accordingly I obtained a few aviary-bred pairs from different 
sources, and after keeping them in an enclosure long enough to 
accustom them to their surroundings. I released them in the 
early summer. The experiment, on the whole, was a failure, 
but it taught me certain things : 
1. - That whatever the respective merits of the two colours in 
an aviary, there can be no doubt that at liberty Yellows 
are the more showy and attractive. 
2. That Budgerigars fall into three classes — the fools who 
fly away on the day of their release; the annoying ones 
who leave after some weeks, just when you hope they are 
settling down ; the sensible ones which stav like homing 
pigeons. 
3. That the hardiness of Budgerigars has been greatlv 
exaggerated — our modern aviary-bred ones have no real 
