Correspondence •



283



of their bad habits, and as they had successfully reared four young last

year expected equal success this year. In this I was mistaken, and their

behaviour has been dreadful as will be seen from the following results.

They went to nest on the 15th April, when the first egg was laid. In all

four eggs were laid, the last one on the 21st. Four young were hatched

out on the 5th May. One young was found dead in the nest, and the other

three were found dead in the long grass in the aviary. As the weather

was cold, I blamed it for these poor results. The birds went to nest

again, laying three eggs between the 18th May and the 25th. Two young

hatched out by the 8th June. One young was dead in the nest, showing

signs of having been killed, and the hen Parrakeet was seen carrying

the other young about in her beak—dead. This was most disappointing

after my easy success of last year, and it looked as if the birds had gone

back to their bad habit of not rearing their young.


I removed the birds into another aviary, where I gave them two

nest-boxes—one in the flight and the other one inside the aviary shelter.

They again went to nest, in the box inside the aviary shelter, and by

the 21st June had laid three eggs. One young hatched out on the

9th July, which was killed on the 11th. The other two eggs

were unfertile. All these failures looked as if these birds would only

rear their young after another long sea voyage, and I was not prepared

to send them on one now. I felt certain that the cock bird was blame¬

less, and that the hen was the culprit. As the cock was devoted to the

hen and had spoilt her thoroughly by feeding her incessantly when

she was sitting, I thought I would punish her the next time she laid

by moving the cock bird away from the aviary and letting her fend

for herself. She went to nest again, and laid four eggs by the 25th July.

I removed the cock bird after the hen had been sitting for about a week.

This made the hen come off the nest pretty often to feed herself, as

her husband was no longer there to spoil her. Two of the eggs were

unfertile, but one young was hatched out on the 12th August and the

other on the 14th. These two young were perfectly fed by the hen, and

thoroughly reared: no mother could have been more attentive to her

young. I wonder if the same treatment will be successful next year,

or if I shall have to try and think out some other plan. It will be

interesting for members to know that the two hens I bred last year



