108 
BOUBEE’S PABBAKEET. 
so much so that the Zoological Gardens do not possess a pairj or even 
a single individual of the species. 
Mr. Wiener writes of the Bourke, "^This delicately- tinted Australian 
Grass Parrakeet is one of the most gentle birds of the Parrot tribe. 
It is much to be regretted that it is so rarely imported^ and therefore 
very dear to buy. If once acclimatised these birds are very hardy, 
and breed freely. Mr. Groom, of Camden Town, London, had the 
best pair which I over saw, and kept them summer and winter in one 
of the open-air aviaries of his own construction, where the birds hatched 
a brood of young. I quote Mr. Groom’s report verhathn : — “’The egg 
of the BourJeii is about the size of a Turquoisine’s egg, of roundish 
shape. The male bird assists in the incubation. Time, about seventeen 
days. Nest in wood log hollowed out for them, as they do not appear 
to have the power to cut away the wood like most Parrakeets do.’” 
On reading the foregoing extract, we wrote to Mr. Groom for further 
particulars, and append his reply, merely remarking that these birds 
should not be called ‘‘BourJeii” , which is the genitive case of their 
specific name, and not at all a plural, as some dealers and one author 
seem to regard it; Bourke, or Bonrke’s Parrot or Parrakeet, is their 
correct English name, Fsittacus Bourldi their scientific designation. 
Mr. Groom writes: “In reply to your letter re Bourke’s Parrakeets, 
I regret that I can give you no more information than that given by 
Mr. Wiener, in his account of Cage Birds. I think it is well known 
they are gentle and affectionate : the pair you saw at the Shows, I had 
about four years, fed almost entirely on canary-seed; they were two 
years in the small-sized garden aviaries, nine feet by four, length seven 
feet by three feet, the same you and Mr. Wiener term large doll- 
houses. I must tell you the wood-house was a very snug one, quite 
free from draughts, and would have been too close with the windows 
shut in the summer evenings; but these birds did well through the 
two severe winters; on cold days, and in fact during the severe months, 
they were kept in the wood shed, I never saw any difference in them. 
The hen died suddenly on the nest, before the young were a day old; 
the male was sold to a gentleman from Germany, he taking it from 
the Alexandra Palace Show. I have no doubt they would breed in 
suitable aviaries could one obtain a young pair: should I have the 
oppoi’tuuity of again possessing a pair, I would take notice of their 
particular habits and let you know.” 
“A relation of this sort, well authenticated, is worth all the Greek 
and Latin of all the nomenclators, that ever barbarized language for 
the purpose of obscuring knowledge”, as Cuvier said in another con- 
nection; but, so little originality is there in the world, the same remark 
