B08Y-FAGEI) LOVE-BIBB. 
133 
We may remark in conclusion of the subject^ that in default of the 
peel of green twigs, these birds make use of strips of paper, straw and 
feathers, with which they construct themselres a nest in the bos, or 
basket they have selected as the cradle of their future offspring. 
This deviation from the general habit of the family of nesting in 
holes in trees, on the bare wood, is exceedingly cui’ious, and affords 
scope for abundant reflection: how can the singular habit have origi- 
nated? probably owing to a scarcity of hollow branches, in defanlt of 
which the first available receptacle for the eggs and young was taken 
advantage of, whether Weaver Bird^’s nest, or some cavity in a rock, 
so hard that the tender eggs were broken; a sad experience that sug- 
gested the necessity of making a soft bed for their reception. But 
why carry the fragments between the feathers of the rump? Yes, 
why? when a beak was available, and so much better adapted for the 
purpose? Why indeed! Clearly some deficiency of reasoning power 
here. Our own Love-birds evinced no tendency toward nest-building, 
but deposited their eggs in a cocoa-nut husk, with the exception of 
one Madagascar hen, who carried a few pieces of straw into her husk, 
whether on her back or not we cannot say; but, as Mrs. Cassirer 
remarks, 'Yhey may have been younger birds, or less conservative in 
their habits”, probably the former assumption is the more correct, for 
Mrs. Cassirer’s hen, which that lady thinks “is undoubtedly an oldish 
bird, and has most probably already nested at least once in a state of 
freedom”, made herself a cradle of scraps of paper, feathers and bits 
of hay, which shows how birds adapt themselves to circumstances : ours, 
not finding themselves nnder the necessity of constructing one, made 
no attempt to build a nest, and our friend’s continued the custom she 
had learned from her relatives in her native woods. 
All the Aga'pornis family is extremely amorous in disposition, and 
makes no scruple of pairing with any other solitary Parrakeet with 
which it may be consorted in an aviary; for instance, we have seen 
one of these birds mate with a hen Cockatiel more than three times 
his size, and another with a New Zealand Parrakeet of scarcely less 
dimensions; whether any progeny would result from such ill-assorted 
unions we have had no opportunity of proving; for the birds so mated, 
scarcely matched, did not nest, although they appeared much attached 
to each other. 
We have also seen solitary male birds of this sub-family endeavouring 
to attract the attention of females of a totally different genus, as for 
example a Canary, and a Saffron Pinch, which both seemed greatly 
terrified by the Love-birds’ advances, and could by no means be in- 
duced to listen to them for a moment; so that we have no doubt that 
