BL08S0M-EEADED PABBAKEET. 
65 
It is a pity the Blossom-headed Parraheet should he so seldom 
imported^ aud consequently expensive; though now and then a large 
consignment arriveSj such as was received, according to Dr. Russ, in 
the year 1876, when four hundred head were to he seen at the same 
time in the shop of Gaetano Alpi of Triest, hut were, strange to say, 
all females. 
When first imported these heautiful birds are rather delicate, for 
their Indian captors fed them on rice in the husk, which is rarely to 
he obtained in this country, and the sudden change to our English 
seeds, together with the transition from a warm to a comparatively cold 
climate, too often prove fatal : once acclimatised, however, they are 
hardy enough, and, as we have said, breed very freely in the aviary. 
Writing of this species, Mr. Gedney says: “1 can hear personal tes- 
timony to their strong attachment to thoir owner, for I had a bird of 
this species given me recently, but he was inconsolable at the change, 
and made such a hideous noise that, after a week^s trial, I sent him 
home again, much to his delight.” 
Mr. Wiener's opinion of the Blossom-headed Parrakeet is that he is 
'^gentle but not particularly talented.” 
Dr. Russ's testimony to the attractive qualities of this bird is strong, 
and expressed in the following terms: Enter alien diesen oder vielmehr 
unter alien Papageien iiberhaupt einer der schonsten, anmuthigsten und 
liebenswiirdigsten”, (Among all these, or rather among all the Parrots 
in general, this is one of the most beautiful, most charming, and most 
worthy of being loved,) an enconium of which we endorse every word. 
No one who has only seen a PaloEornis in a cage, where certainly 
it does not show to much advantage, can form any idea of the grace- 
fulness and agility of the same bird on the wing; whether rising in a 
gradually expanding spiral towards the clouds, flitting among the boughs 
that are scarcely more vividly green than his beautifully tinted coat, 
or darting, swift as an arrow from a bow, straight before him into 
space. Even at comparative liberty in a good-sized aviary, he appears 
a different bird to the pensive captive chained to a stand or ring, or 
sitting 'Gike patience on a monument” on the topmost porch in a bell- 
shaped cage, or like the man with the muck-rake” in Bunyan's im- 
mortal allegory, groping with bedraggled tail at the bottom of his 
enforced domicile. 
Never keep a Parrot in a cage”, was the advice given to us long 
ago, by an esteemed and ancient friend, who was a keen lover of nature 
and all animated things — ^^If you can help it” we replied, but our 
friend shook his head, ‘‘Never keep one at all, if you cannot keep it 
properly.” 
I. s 
