Breeding of the Yellow-fronted New Zealand Barrakeet 295


seen going into the nest-box at fairly frequent intervals, remaining

there for considerable periods at a time ; and soon one could hear the

very faint squeakings of young ones being fed.


Incidentally, I may mention here that as they grow older, the noise

of young Yellow-fronts in the nest is very unlike that of young Platy-

cercine Parrakeets or Grass Parrakeets, oddly resembling the screaming

of swifts as they wheel in wide circles on a summer evening.


The young ones were brought up entirely on their ordinary diet,

plus a considerable extra quantity of sunflower and millet spray and,

shortly before they left the nest, a heaped dessertspoonful of hemp

a day—a seed which does not seem to suit them at all well in any

quantity at other times. The parents also consumed vast quantities

of freshly-picked spinach-beet and were extremely fond of flowering

rye grass and apple.


Mr. Bouskill’s birds seem to have eaten large numbers of mealworms

when they were bringing up their family, but I have only ever been

able to induce one of our New Zealands, the original rather small

infertile cock, to take any interest in mealworms at all.

When the breeding pair had young ones, I kept mealworms

always before them for a week or more in the hope that they would

eventually take to them, but with no success.


They certainly do not, therefore, appear to be essential to the

welfare of the brood as I had feared, for in our case not only did all six

eggs hatch but the whole family was successfully reared, and are now

fully independent of their parents.


The young ones remained in the nest for just over five weeks and

came out on 6th September, as rather duller editions of their parents

but, as I have said, perfectly easy to sex owing to the marked difference

in the size of the cocks and the hens.


To begin with they were rather silent little birds, but are now, 25th

September, starting to practise in rather small, tentative voices their

curious sheep-like bleating. They are also starting to evince the tireless

energy which characterizes the race, running, jumping, hopping, and

flying so quickly that their separate movements are difficult to

follow.


It was amusing to watch their parents teaching them to scratch



