R. R. Minchin—Breeding the Scarlet-chested Parrakeet 109



cod-liver oil—one teaspoon of oil to a pint of seed. Logs had been

hung against the wall in a nearly upright position, thus :—



A few inches of earth was placed in the bottom of the logs and

a small hole bored several inches from the top to act as an entrance.

They chose a log hanging outside, the measurement of which was

30 inches long with an internal diameter of 5J inches. It was some

time before the female eventually began to sit and young were heard

squeaking in the nest on 3rd November. A week later the hen was

spending quite a lot of time off the nest in obtaining food for the off¬

spring, but the cock was rarely seen to feed them, but frequently assisted

by passing food on to the hen for due delivery to the nestlings. At this

stage the birds had such a craving for green seeding grass that they

would readily alight on a bunch held in the hand, but otherwise they

were not particularly tame. The first youngster left the nest thirty -

three days after hatching on 6th December, and the remaining three

appeared on 9th December.


Whilst feeding their young the birds were given their ordinary

diet consisting of equal parts of canary and white millet seed, but of

course their allowance of green seeding grass was considerably increased.


The young resemble the female but males can usually be distin¬

guished by their slightly superior size and by the fact that the blue

of the face is brighter than that on the female.


The father of these birds was taken from the nest last season and

reared by hand. On arriving here there were several scarlet spots on

the bird’s chest and their total area would not have been greater than

that of a shilling. Compared with fully coloured males I should say

that the scarlet on the chest will increase by at least 25 per cent, so it

is quite evident that more than a year must elapse before they are

fully coloured.


We are fortunate at the moment in being able to exhibit in the

Adelaide Zoological Gardens all the species of Grass Parrakeets except

the Orange-bellied, and even this bird we hope to possess before long.



