74 E. J. Boosey—Breeding Results at Keston Foreign Bird Farm , 1934


One of the most interesting and satisfactory events was the breeding

of Hooded Parrakeets at the right time of year. This lovely and shapely

little bird has scarcely ever been bred, though this is not because

they are difficult to rear or unwilling to go to nest. The reason is

their almost invariable refusal to adapt themselves to our seasons.

They usually spend the proper breeding season moulting hard and,

although all their neighbours are busy rearing families, Hooded refuse

so much as even to examine a nest-box. Then, at last, about October,

as soon as they begin to feel an autumnal nip in the air, they decide

that the ideal time to start thinking about raising a family has arrived.


To allow them to breed at such a time is, of course, quite hopeless,

the few young ones that have been reared in heated shelters proving,

even if they live long enough to leave the nest, so weakly and rickety

as to be hardly worth the trouble of rearing.


The hen that bred this year was mated in spring, 1933, to a cock

Red-rump, who, to her outraged astonishment, suggested that she

should lay in April. To this fantastic proposal she opposed a curt

negative but, in doing so, failed to take into account the reactions of

a cock Red-rump who considers his wife is attempting to thwart him.

He, too, was amazed and indignant, so much so that he literally drove

his wretched wife (who was just looking forward to a nice- quiet moult)

into the nest-box, and kept her there until she promised to set about

immediately preparing it for the reception of eggs.


This, with extreme reluctance she did, the result being a brood of

four hybrids, all successfully reared.


This spring a Hooded husband was provided for her and, as they

went to nest in April, one can only suppose that she must have told

her husband about her successful experiment of the previous year.

For some reason, possibly because she must by now be getting pretty

old, she only laid two eggs, but these were both hatched and reared

into two very fine young cocks.


A short description of the aforementioned hybrids—a cross which

has, we believe, never been obtained before—might be of interest, as

the birds are now fully adult. The hen takes after her father, and

is not unlike a paler and slimmer edition of an ordinary hen Red-rump.

The three cocks have slightly bluish emerald-green breasts, dark-grey



