108 R. R. Minchin—Breeding the Scarlet-chested Parrakeet


breed if two cocks can see each other, as they will spend all their

time trying to fight. Hens also vary very much in temperament,

and some are much easier to manage than others. I believe these

birds have been bred in a cage in Germany, and I have seen a

hen sitting in a cage in London, but I don’t think the eggs hatched.

It is to be hoped that now the Buckmaster Bill has been passed

that more people will try and breed our native Finches, as I am

sure it can be done, and I think one gets just as much interest and

enjoyment from breeding them as from breeding rare foreign birds,

which are beyond the reach of a lot of us.



BREEDING OF THE SCARLET-CHESTED OR

SPLENDID GRASS PARRAKEET (NEOPHEMA

SPLENDIDA) IN ADELAIDE


By R. B. Minchin.


I should like to record the fact in the Magazine that four Scarlet¬

chested Grass Parrakeets were reared in this Society’s Gardens this

season. We started with two pairs and about 20th July, 1933, one

of the hens began to incubate eight eggs. After three days she left

the log and took no more interest in incubation so the eggs were removed

and placed under four hen Budgerigars. Seven of these eventually

hatched but the young died one by one until all were lost. They were

certainly not starved and no theory can be advanced for their death

unless it was that their foster parents left them at night, perhaps being

frightened off the nest by their unnatural charges.


During the first week in August the hen began to lay again, but

on the 7th she became egg-bound with the third egg, and although

it was laid the following day, she became gradually weaker and died

on 9th August.


The second pair did not come into breeding condition until later

in the season and it was not till 4th September that the cock was

seen feeding the hen. They were immediately givep seed treated with



