1932; the Things that didn't come off and the New Arrivals 251



in the best of spirits and likely to nest again. Soon afterwards, how¬

ever, she fell ill once more, apparently with a slight chill. That evening

in the heated hospital she seemed quite all right again. Next morning

she was dead. A few days later the cock looked slightly ill. After

a day in the hospital he looked quite all right: next morning he was

dead. The post-mortem gave septicaemia in both cases.


The only other youngster to die in the nest was a hybrid which,

had it lived, would have been a first record.


A few years ago Mr. Ezra kindly gave me a Hodgson’s Slaty¬

headed Parrakeet. He appeared to be a very old bird with a constitu¬

tion undermined by a long period of close confinement. He flew heavily,

grew, year after year, one yellow feather and one twisted feather in his

wing, and at first was very delicate and liable to minor ailments.

However, as time went by, he grew steadily more robust, but I

must confess I thought it most unlikely he would ever be fertile. I

nevertheless provided him with a hen Plumhead as a companion

and this year she nested in a box in the aviary flight and to my surprise

hatched one of her eggs, the rest appearing to have young dead in the

shell. The nestling survived until it was just beginning to feather.

Probably it never had a very sound constitution, but I find it impossible

to breed good Plumheads (or for that matter good King’s or Crimson-

wings) except in a natural tree-trunk.


A very beautiful Sula Island King X Crimson-wing hybrid was

paired to a hen Crimson-wing and I quite hoped that they might have

young even though he proved infertile last year when still in immature

plumage. Although he was most attentive to his mate, the eggs,

however, again proved clear and I am afraid he is quite definitely

sterile in spite of the near relationship of his parents. The failure of

the eggs to hatch and their ultimate removal was a source of great

distress to him and his wife. It is quite pathetic to see the grief of

a male Polyteline or Aprosmictine Parrakeet when his expected family

fails to materialize. Cocks take the matter to heart far more than hens !

When the Crimson-wing laid a second time I gave her a fertile Ringneck

egg and they have reared their foster child most successfully and are

much attached to it.


Two other childless couples were less fortunate, though I did my



