INTBOBUGTION. 
ix 
A knowledge of the habits of birds, to be gained, however, mainly by 
experience, will tell the aviarist what species he may safely cage together, 
and a fertile source of loss be thus avoided. The same may be said with 
respect to suitable and unsuitable food, comfortable dwelling-places, and 
appropriate nesting accommodation. Upon the question of cleanliness we 
will not insult our readers by touching; but many aviarists, especially be- 
ginners, are too apt to overcrowd their birds, and many, and dire misfortunes 
spring from this cause alone. 
It is eminently undesirable to keep the larger Parrots in the same enclosure 
with the dwarf members of the race; Rosy Cockatoos, for instance, with 
Budgerigars, or Blue Mountain Lories with Madagascar White-heads ; while 
the latter will be unsafe neighbours for the pretty little Blue-wings, the 
smallest and most charming members of the Agapornis sub-family, which 
had better either be placed in an aviary by themselves, or consorted with 
the tiny Astrilds, often, but erroneously, named Ornamental Finches. 
Few amateurs have facilities for keeping the larger Parrots and Cockatoos 
in any numbers, so as to ensure the profitable breeding of these in many 
ways desirable birds ; their comparatively huge dimensions necessitate a wide 
accommodation, and their noisy outcries preclude the possibility of their 
being kept anywhere but in a remote country district, far beyond the reach 
of neighbouring sensitive human ears: to keep a flock of Cockatoos in a 
town, or even village, would entail upon the rash individual who made the 
attempt, attentions similar to those bestowed upon the cat-loving Countess 
at Kensington, whose pro-feline proclivities have more than once formed 
the subject of a judicial investigation. Still the Great Sulphur-Crested Cocka- 
too has been successfully bred in Germany, and, but for an untoward accident, 
we have no doubt we should have bred Goflin’s Cockatoo. On the whole, 
however, except in very special cases, the aviarist will do well to confine 
his attention to breeding Parrakeets, which may be preserved without offence 
to neighbours of a difierent taste, and are also more readily provided for 
in the way of suitable habitations, than the owners of beaks of such for- 
midable dimensions and tremendous power as the Macaws and the greater 
Cockatoos. 
The present volume of Parrots in Captivity is, so to speak, tentative, but 
should this attempt in the direction of familiarising the public with a most 
delightful class of birds, have the success we hope for, and which the 
efforts of our enterprising publisher, who has spared neither pains nor ex- 
pense to make the work as attractive as possible, seem to warrant us in 
expecting, we propose to continue the subject, if not to exhaustion, at least 
to the extent of three or four volumes more. 
En attendant, we must express our obligation to the kind friends whose 
assistance has been instrumental in making the work what it is; nor can 
we overlook the efforts of the artist, whose life-like portraits of the various 
birds have added so much to its usefulness and attractiveness: in almost 
every instance the plates have been drawn and coloured from life, and are 
