Correspondence 263



HOW TO SEX NY AS A LOVEBIRDS?


Could you inform me (through the Avicultural Magazine) how

to sex Nyasa Lovebirds ? Here in Australia nobody seems to know.


H. G. Barnard.


Adelaide.


[Unfortunately nobody outside Australia knows either.— Ed.]



A RARE SOUTH AMERICAN GROSBEAK


In last year’s Magazine (pp. 4, 227, 289) there was some corre¬

spondence about the very rare South American Grosbeak ( Neorhynchus

nasecus), in reference to one seen by Miss Chawner in Herr Stefani’s

aviaries at Holzheim in Germany ; this bird had just arrived and was

considered a first importation. Rudolf Neunzig has recently written

an article on the species in Die gefiederte Welt, in which he says that it

was first imported in 1927 by Schondube of Berlin. A full account of

the plumage is given and a summary of the little known of it either

aviculturally or otherwise. A Herr Steinhagen appears to have had

eggs (Gef. Welt. 1928, 575), and according to a label on a skin in the

Berlin Museum we ought to believe that it had been bred, “ von Herrn

Stefani gezuchteten .” We then read, ‘ 4 It is to be hoped that the lucky

breeder will quickly report his success,” a hope we can all support.


E. Hopkinson.



BREEDING OF THE INDIAN RINGNECK PARRAKEET


Perhaps a few notes on the breeding of the above may be of

interest to some of our members. Here at Keswick Hall lived a fine

pair of these Parrakeets which, during the early part of the year,

were given an aviary to themselves. They quickly settled down

and we hoped we might induce them to breed during the summer.

They were given the choice of three nest-boxes, one a natural log

placed on a tree-trunk, one a large oblong box with concave bottom

made by a carpenter, and the third a small rough box made by myself.

During the latter part of March all three boxes were visited in turn,

but they chose the most unlikely of the three, the rough box. The

hen disappeared on 24th April but, the box being so small, her tail



