140 
MABAGASOAB LOVE-BIIID. 
blown down, but they did not seem to mind, and when it was put 
up again they went on adding twig to twig as if nothing had hap- 
pened. During the process of building they unmercifully attacked any 
birds that attempted to come near the precious nest. One old Cockatoo 
had to be kept indoors, so savagely did they attack him; and the 
Doves, who also inhabit the garden hall, had anything but a pleasant 
time of it. Unfortunately (in January), before the nest was finished, 
we had to come up to London, and one day, very soon after we had 
left, the birds disappeared : whether they lost themselves, or were stolen, 
we never discovered. The nest, as then left, was some five feet high, 
and about six feet in circumference at the top. The birds never showed 
any desire to lay eggs, but probably when the warm weather came 
they would have made some use of their stupendous structure. 
“^It is heart-breaking work endeavouring to acclimatise these Parrots 
and Oockies; no sooner do they become very tame and affectionate than, 
in most cases, they disappear. The climate does not appear to affect 
them; they seem just as cheerful in winter as in summer, and we have 
never been able to trace mortality to cold. They mostly die, I fear, a 
sudden and violent death. A high wind, the destructive gun, destroying 
Hawk, and possibly starvation when lost, make havoc in their ranks.” 
We could go on quoting, but must refer the reader to the work 
itself, from which we have borrowed the above highly interesting ex- 
tracts, namely. The Animal World for 1878. 
So much for nest-building Parrots: the Love-birds carry materials 
into the cavities they have selected for their habitation, lining the latter 
with the fibres, etc., they have laboriously conveyed into them on their 
backs: the Kakapo and some of the Macaws, and the Patagonian 
Conure, occasionally, if not always, excavate dwellings for themselves 
in banks and cliffs, but the Quaker or Monk Parrot is the only instance 
known of a member of the family building a nest with sticks, and 
must be looked upon as an exception to the general rule, that impels 
these birds to rear their young in burrows. 
