or Blue-headed Parrot Finches



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There is one thing which must be very carefully avoided. Do not

have any other birds in the aviary other than Parrot Finches, the

reason being that they will let even Waxbills rob their nests of material

or turn them out altogether. They will spend the year building nests

for other birds to live in without laying a single egg. This applies to

the Blue-heads, and the Bed is no better when it comes to fighting

for house and home. It would not even be advisable to have Bed-heads

in the same aviary as Blue-heads for this reason.


Parrot Finches are hardy if kept indoors in winter and the tem¬

perature not allowed to fall below about 45° to 50° F. But (yes, there

is a catch in it, though one which has a remedy) there is a curious

ailment with which Bed-heads are affected. I lost two with a wasting

disease before saving the third and the fourth. If one of your birds

gets this trouble you will find him spending most of his time at the

feeder. It will probably still be fairly active, but his wings will usually

not be carried as high as is natural. They will be held with the flight

feather lower than the tail root, as with the British Bobin, and there

will be a thick appearance, which gradually gets worse. It will also

be noticed that the bird eats little though he is continually working

seeds in his beak, shelling some and discarding most. As the disease

takes its course the bird will be seen continually stretching his neck

and yawning—just like a chicken with gapes. The first bird that

took it with me I thought it had some form of gapes, but when the bird

eventually died there was nothing of the kind to be found. The only

apparent cause of death was that the bird had no food in it and was

in a very emaciated condition. The same was the report on No. 2.

These two birds had been given all the remedies for the usual bird

disorders without success. When the third bird went the same way I

therefore thought of trying something in the line of a building-up

tonic, so deciding to start with cod-liver oil, I mixed a quantity of

canary seed with it in the proportion of four teaspoonfuls to a pint.

You will say, probably, “ That should finish it off fairly soon,” but

remember that the birds were found when opened to have no food in

them ; it was therefore probable that in the earlier stages they only

ate very little. I was counting on the oil they licked off the seeds more

than that which was actually absorbed by it.



