136 
MADAGASCAR LOVE-BIRD. 
ceeded in breeding these birds in their aviaries, but we have never 
obtained young ones from ours; possibly because, not caring about the 
birds, we did not take particular pains to induce them to breed. 
The Madagascar Love-birds have a custom, peculiar to the sub- 
family to which they belong, of carrying small chips of wood, bits of 
grass and fibre, scraps of paper even, and other rubbish into the boxes 
or cocoa-nut husks they have elected to build in, and there make them- 
selves a nest : Mr. Wiener relates that his birds carried these scraps 
to her nest-box on her back! a feat we have not yet seen attempted, 
but which, nevertheless, appears to be their usual habit. 
The Love-birds in the several countries where they are found, feed 
on various kinds of seed, and in confinement require, especially the 
Red-faced variety, that a portion at least of their food should be 
soaked for them: their diet in captivity should consist mainly of canary 
and millet, but hemp, oats, and maize (the small variety) should be 
occasionally added; green food they are very partial to of all kinds, 
and water is indispensable for their well-being: they do not bathe freely, 
but, like the Budgerigar, prefer to roll themselves in long wet grass. 
All the varieties mentioned are sufficiently hardy to winter out of 
doors, even in England, and we have seen the Madagascar voluntarily 
roosting in the uncovered portion of the aviary, when the thermometer 
stood at considerably below zero Eahr., without any appreciable injury, 
and that when a good warm house was at his disposal, and most of 
his congeners had availed themselves of the shelter it afforded them. 
The Rosy-faced, being the rarest, we have not tried out of doors, 
but Dr. Russ thinks it not less hardy than the rest of the Agapotnis 
sub-family, of which the prettiest, gentlest, and most interesting mem- 
ber is the Blue-winged Love-bird {Psittacus gregarius). 
Concerning A. cana, our esteemed correspondent Mrs. Cassirer writes 
from Paris as follows : — “1 have had four nests from my Whiteheads; 
in each case the nesting material was carried as described by Dr. Russ 
and Mr. Wiener, namely, stuck between the feathers of the back and 
rump; so that the bird resembled a fretful jDorcupine. As iU-luck 
will have it, none of the eggs have been hatched. Last year the male 
bird was killed, and this year the male has been struck down with 
paralysis in the middle of the second brood, from the hips downwards : 
I presume from exhaustion from feeding the hen entmely for several 
weeks. With careful nursing I have brought him round so far as 
to enable him to sit on the perches again, but to my great regret 
the hind claws bend forward, so that he is lamed. I have given one 
third good muscatel wine with the drinking water daily for several 
weeks. The bird is very lively and sings, persisting in feeding his 
