:/csttng Noics for 1921. 
233 
steadily after the first few days, but owing to the nature of t' 
nest the eggs rolled about and, I expect, became chilled a. 
times. Anyhow, at the end of three weeks I removed six eggs, 
all of which were clear. 
Ten days later the hen began to lay again ; this time only 
four eggs were laid, one of which I removed because it was 
cracked. The remaining three I placed in a nest I had pre- 
viously prepared — a hemispherical hollow cut in a thick piece or 
wood and buried flush with the ground; this was again covered 
as before with a piece of iron, and incubation proceeded steadily 
and ended on July 28th — twenty days — when three chicks hatched 
out; they thrived and grew rapidly, and when a week old I built 
a sort of wooden barricade, 6 inches high, around the nest, in 
order to prevent the young crawHng out. 
The parents did not appear to mind any of the numerous 
interferences, and I was able to have frequent peeps at the 
young; in their early stages they were- even more nideous than 
most of their congeners, their colour being a dirty white with 
a covering of dark down. At the age of ten days the quills 
were well developed, and another ten days later the green colour- 
ation on the head and back was well developed. The three 
young left their nest on the 39th, 46th, and 47th day respectively 
from the time of hatching; the last to leave was a good deal 
smaller and less well developed than the other two, but has since 
grown rapidly and will soon be the equal of his brothers and 
parents. My observations have taught me that incubation is 
performed only by the female, who is carefully tended and fed 
by the male, and that both parents feed about equally. Large 
quantities of hemp and sunflower seed are consumed; millet and 
canary are not much relished at this time. 
That it is almost impossible to provide enough green 
food in a dry summer such as we have had, and, finally, that 
these birds do not care for soaked bread when feeding young. 
The five birds have been removed to No. 4 aviary, which 
has been cleared for them, and which they occupy together with 
a pair each of Yucatan and Azure Jays. The young King 
Parrakeets are now 10 weeks old, and I make them out to be two 
hens and one cock. 
The last named has the red of the under parts more 
