120 
BUBGEBIGAB. 
have been for a long time, 12s. 6d. and 15s. a pair: while lately they 
could have been purchased for about 8s. a couple: at the latter price, 
however, they “pay” well, for they are frugal birds, cost little to keep, 
and multiply with extraordinary rapidity. 
As a rule Budgerigars do not interfere with other birds, but it is 
better to keep them in an enclosure by themselves, or associated with 
Cockatiels : the Finches tease them, and fill their nests with hay and 
rubbishj while the various Love-birds are quarrelsome, and Turquoisines, 
Red-rumps, et hoc genus omne would soon make an end of the Undu- 
lated folk: still wo have known vicious Budgerigars that not only fought 
among themselves, but committed murderous assaults upon the other 
inmates of the aviary; and should such an evilly-disposed individual 
be discovered in a flock, he, or, more frequently, she, had better be 
removed, and condemned to solitary confinement for the remainder of 
her, or his, days : it is just such perversely tempered birds that make 
the best and most familiar pets; they have apparently been slighted, 
or injured by their own kind, and find that consolation in the society 
and companionship of their owner which is denied them by their con- 
geners. 
A lady having written to us to inquire how she should pronounce 
the word Budgerigar, a native term signifying “'^pretty bird”, we 
reply: Bud-ger-ee-gar the first “g” soft, as in geranium; and the 
second, hard, as in garden. 
