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BOSY-FAOEB LOVE-BIBB. 
percted upon them, quicHy stripping off the leaves and gnawing the 
buds and bark. At first it seemed to me that this employment too 
was due rather to a love of mischief, than to any desire to use them 
as food; however on observing them more closely, I noticed that they 
had at length found the wished-for nesting material. 
Skilfully ripping off a piece of the peel, from six to ten c. in 
length, then taking it in her beak, so that one end projects about 
three c., the hen bends her head back, ruffles up the feathers on her 
rump, nestles with her beak among them, smooths them down again, 
and then the splinter remains fastened in the plumage. A second, 
third, sixth, and even eighth are thus ripped off and secured; many 
fall on the ground, and are taken no further notice of, many, too, are 
pulled out by the too officious mate; at length however some remain 
in place, the Parrot rises, flies slowly and cautiously to the nesting 
place, enters it well laden with chips, and emerges without her burden. 
“Whether other dwarf Parrots act in a similar manner or not, I do 
not know, but consider it probable. At present (1882) I am the only 
person who has observed this unique habit. The whole history of birds 
offers no parallel to it: no single bird (not even excepting the Quaker 
Parrot, which builds large uncovered nests on trees) of all those with 
whose habits of propagation we are acquainted, conveying the nesting 
materials to the nest in this peculiar manner.” 
Commenting on these remarks, Mrs. Cassirer observes: “Here you 
will notice that Dr. Brehm chooses to ignore Dr. Russes publications 
with regard to the Grey Head {Aga^pornis cana) entirely. The date 
of My Birds by Dr. Brehm is 1882, and already in Dr. Russ’s Hand- 
booh of 1878 the correct account of the manner of carrying fragments 
to the nest by both P. roseicolUs and P. cmius was given, pp. 254-255.” 
^^As to when the first egg was laid, how long it took to hatch”, 
continues Dr. Brehm, “and how long the cradle time of the young ones 
lasted, I cannot say, as I feared to disturb the birds by examining 
the nest. I was only able to ascertain that the latter was made of 
peelings, and resembles two thirds of a hollow hemisphere, that the 
white egg is very round and comparatively large, that the young birds 
emerge, from two to five in number, about ten or eleven weeks after 
the first pairing, and that their plumage is duller and darker than 
that of their parents; and the beak blackish. They are fed by both 
parents not only with vegetable substances, but also with Nightingale 
food, which permits the assumption that in a state of liberty the parents 
would also 2 Drovide them with insect food. Immediately after the first 
brood, and before the young are quite independent, the old birds 
proceed to the second, and, it seems, the last of the season.” 
