142 The Breeding of Blue-Bonnct Parrakeets. 
ance, but the murderous intent with which the visitor descended 
on the top of the flight scared him badly until he found out that 
the wire-netting was a better defence than it looked. Although 
not a tame bird the Red-vented cock showed intelligent obser- 
vation, and if the gardener who fed him was late he would fly 
off to find him and plainly indicate that he expected his water 
attended to. In March he began to feed his mate through the 
wire netting, and in April I allowed him to enter the aviary. He 
showed no regret at the loss of his freedom and at once settled 
down to domestic life. At first I was afraid there was going to 
be trouble, as I noticed him driving the hen about as if anxious 
to kill her, but on watching more closely I realized that it was 
only fun, for he never bit hard, however furiously he api'-eared 
to attack her. Towards the end of April they took possession 
of a hollow log — and then, in spite of warm damp weather, the 
morning came when the hen developed the ail-too familiar symp- 
toms of egg-binding. This, to a parrakeet-breeder. usually 
spells complete and permanent disaster; not that you cannot 
save the hen — that is easy — but a hen, once egg-bound, never 
sits, and once egg-bound hardlv ever lays a full clutch success- 
fully. There was only one thing to '.e dene; we caged the hen 
in a hot greenhouse and examined the nest, which contained 2 
eggs. That evening the third egg arrived and we returned the 
hen next day. The following morning she was again egg-l ound. 
and this time she seemed so bad that I feared we should lo .e her. 
However the fourth egg was laid, and after keeping her in an- 
other three days I returned her in the forlorn hope that she 
would begin to sit. She went into the nest -box but quickly 
came out again and sat at the entrance wagging her tail ; obvi- 
ously it was no good: she might lay again, but she was net in the 
least broody. As it was very undesirabV to aiiow )ier to try 
and produce more eggs, I removed the log and went to inspect 
the nest of a Red-rump who might possibly be persuaded to 
adopt the deserted eggs. T gof a ladder, opened the box, and 
after a lot of gentle poking got the hen off her egg (there was 
only one); then I added the four Blue-bonnets' eggs and closed 
the lid, devoutly hoping that the Red-rump was bad a*: arith- 
metic. After a few weeks a squeaking proceeded from the 
box, and it was obvious that the Red-rump had hatched some- 
