146



Correspondence



BIRDS FROM THE NEW HEBRIDES



Messrs. Shaw-Mayer and Walter Goodfellow have just returned

from a trip to the new Hebrides, and have brought home a number

of birds new to aviculture. There are a number of examples of the

Royal Parrot-finch (Erythrura regia), a beautiful bird with red

head and mostly blue body; a pair of Palm Lorikeets (Hypo-

charmosyna palmarum ), two species of Zosterops (Z. flavifrons and

Z. griseinota), three yellow-tinted Honey-eaters (Glyciphila incana

flavotincta ), some Cardinal Honey-eaters (Myzomela cardinalis),

and a pair of Kingfishers (Halcyon julise).


A very good coloured plate of the Royal Parrot-finch appeared

in The Ibis for 1881.



D. S-S.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


PARROTLETS AND OILY SEEDS; BROWN OWLS


I have never found Parrotlets injured by oily seeds. It is Lovebirds,

Brotogerys Parrakeets and Conures that are much better without them.

Parrotlets are usually fond of moistened bread as an “ extra ” to their diet.


I do not think Mr. Villiamy is likely to find that his Brown Owl grows

wilder when she has been longer at liberty. Owls never seem to forget their

friends and the British species, at any rate, usually recognize them after

long intervals.


Tavistock.



LONGEVITY IN BRITISH BIRDS

It would appear that the climate of Somerset tends to produce avian as

well as human longevity. The April number records the death, at Chard, of a

twenty-year-old Goldfinch. A month ago I found an old lady in my parish

(Taunton) bemoaning the death of a pet Bullfinch which she had kept caged

in her kitchen for nineteen years—and it was not, evidently, a very young

bird when she obtained it. What struck me as even more remarkable was the

fact that, apart from occasional green food, the bird had been fed entirely

on hemp seed, upon which it appeared to thrive until a few weeks before its

death.


John E. G. Sweetnam.



THE BLACK MAMBA AGAIN


Your esteemed contributor Mr. C. S. Webb need now have no further

doubts as to the existence of the Black Mamba, for I was able to bring two

home alive for the Zoo last month, much to the joy of Dr. Burgess Barnett.



