210 
Budgerigars at Liberty. 
stamina at all, but contract chills on the very slightest 
provocation, like newly imported waxbills. 
1920 was, of course, a villainously wet summer, and it 
was quite too much for the Budgerigars; the majority were 
continually on the sick list and needing" to be caught up and 
nursed. All the hens that nested died egg-bound, and the one 
or two that survived were killed by an unmated Banded Parra- 
keet who made herself an intolerable nuisance to breeding birds 
until I caught her up. 
By September only one pair of Greens remained at liberty; 
these took possession of a nest-box, and I quite hoped for a 
belated brood; but even this was not to be. One evening I saw 
the hen sitting just inside the box; next morning she was still 
sitting in the same position, and closer inspection showed that 
she was dead — egg-bound. Her mate flew into our neighbour'.; 
house to join a pair of caged Budgerigars, and I took him in 
for the winter. 
In March of this year I released him with a new hen, and 
they soon showed signs of breeding; then the hen fell ill and 
had to be caged and kept warm ; soon after her recovery and 
release the cock disappeared — whether he died or met with an 
accident will never be known. 
In late April a few more pairs w-ere released, and one cock 
mated with the widowed hen, and they nested in a hollow elm 
down the lane. A pair of Yellows contracted chills during the 
very fine weather we had in May, and unfortunately received 
fatal injuries in being caught. 
As far as we could tell two Yellow hens and a Green 
nested in an elm tree in the garden, and for a time things 
looked more hopeful. During June I had to catch up a Green 
cock and a non-breeding hen who developed chills; but at the 
en.d of the month the cock from the lane brought a young birJ 
to feed; in the course of a week or so three more appeared, all, 
strange to say, pretty badly plucked. When the youngsters 
seemed well on seed and independent of their parents, I caught 
th.ree of them up, and later the fourth, who seemed ill. This 
latter bird soon died (it had a chill) and to my disappointment 
