The Marquess of Tavistock—1934 : Things that did come off 259


a good percentage of any clutch of eggs, this year established a record

by producing five young—two cocks and three hens. Young males,

I find, always show some “ butterfly markings ” on the wing even in

nestling plumage. It is a great pity that people will not do more with

this splendid Parrakeet as a liberty bird. When properly mated to hens

confined in aviaries adult males never stray and never get into trouble,

and their graceful flight and gorgeous colouring makes them highly

ornamental. They also possess the great advantage of agreeing when

at liberty with their own kind so that you can have as many cocks loose

as you choose to provide with hens and aviaries. At the moment

I have three flying in the garden and two have been out for part of

each season for years.


A pair of Mealy Rosellas which came last winter moulted some

weeks after arrival and began to show signs of being in breeding

condition soon after being turned into their aviary. The hen took

possession of a grandfather-clock nest and although at first she was

rather a nervous sitter she hatched and reared four fine youngsters.

The two young cocks have bright yellow caps with a few red and grey

feathers interspersed, while their sisters have grey caps much mottled

with brick red. It is often somewhat difficult to drive young Parrakeets

into the aviary shelter as the hole that leads to the shelter is a small

one. One of the young hen Mealies has proved the most tiresome and

obstinate pupil I have ever had to train. Young Barrabands, though

apt to lose their heads the first night and crash about in the most

alarming way, learn quickly and are rarely any trouble after the third

lesson. Not so the Mealy. She was almost as obstinate at the end of

the first week as on the first night, and it was the obstinacy of sheer

cussedness and not of timidity. I have been holding my arms above

my head for so long in my attempts to induce her to pass through into

the shelter that I am thinking of qualifying as an honorary fakir !


The success of the Yellow-bellies is recorded in a separate article.

The brood—again two pairs—are the finest and strongest young Broad¬

tails I have ever reared. Last autumn I obtained for the first time in

my life a true pair of Yellow-mantled Rosellas, my previous Yellow-

mantles all being cocks. The hen, I was interested to discover, is

quite as decidedly yellow on the mantle as her mate, but in other



