14



E. J. Boosey and Alec Brooksbank



tragedies. The hen devoted herself to the remaining three and did not

seem particularly upset at being a temporary grass widow.


The behaviour of this particular cock is the more extraordinary as

Barrabands are usually quite the most amiable of the larger Parrakeets

and, in a big aviary, will even live in harmony when two or more

breeding pairs are kept together. The cocks hardly ever molest newly-

fledged young, not their own, and will sometimes assist in their early

education. One trembles to think of the slaughter there would be if

one attempted to keep several breeding pairs of Lorikeets or Peach¬

faced Lovebirds together.


Barrabands—considered (with Many-colours), in the old days, to

be such impossible birds to keep alive—are in reality so simple to cater

for and such ready breeders, that it seems a pity their many virtues

as aviary birds are not more widely appreciated.


We had very bad luck with one of our pairs of Many-colours. The

hen, having successfully laid five eggs, and when she was just starting to

sit, suddenly became completely paralysed in both feet. She eventually

recovered, but in the meantime her eggs had to be placed under a

mateless hen Stanley, who had just begun to lay an infertile clutch of

her own. Although every one of the substituted eggs hatched she not

unnaturally failed to rear them, especially as they hatched about

a week before she could have expected her own family.


Another pair of Many-colours—a cock bred here mated to an

imported hen—successfully reared five young, among which was a cock

of particularly brilliant colouring. The hens, too, were all very well

coloured, possessing, as we had hoped, a band of brownish bronze on

the upper breast, inherited from their mother who, because of her bright

colouring, was specially selected as a mate for the most vivid cock.


The oldest pair we possess, who have lived in an aviary for about

seventeen years, and whose age when wild caught in Australia is not

known, only reared one young one this year, though last year they had

six. Unfortunately at the end of last season the hen developed a

badly dropped wing—a recurrence of a similar trouble she had some

years ago—and we fully expected her breeding days were over, and were

surprised at their producing even one youngster this year. They are

the most devoted couple and, though they will probably breed no more.



