40



Walter Voigt—The Breeding of Rosetta Parrakeets



scalded ants’ pupae, hard-boiled egg, and a little biscuit. Now and

then they like to nibble at a little maw-seed and oats. The perches of

the cage were very eagerly chewed up, so that they had to be renewed

every week. The birds, particularly the hen, were very wild, but in

time they got accustomed to people, and in May, 1930, the birds were

put into a flight cage, in the open, of the following size : Length,

4J feet ; height, 3 feet ; depth, 2 ft. 8 in. The back of the cage is of

wood, as is the top, all the other sides are open and covered with small-

mesh wire netting. After the birds had become fairly used to this

cage I gave them a nest-box with a hollowed-out egg cavity. The hen

soon disappeared in the nest-box and she only came out very rarely

to take food. The period of hope began for me now, and I was not

destined to be disappointed. At the end of June I heard the cries

of the young ones in the box but, as I have made it a rule never to look

in the nest-boxes during breeding, I did not know how many young,

there were.


I use nest-boxes of the vertical type—11 by 11 inches and height

18 inches. The entrance-hole is 4 inches in diameter. But this is-

the important point : With boxes of this design I have very often

observed that eggs were crushed by the hen entering too hastily.

The hens jump usually from the entrance-hole on to the eggs. In

order to avoid this I have provided the boxes on the inside with a strip

of wire netting. This wire netting reaches from the hole to the egg

cavity. All hens now let themselves down on this netting. As a

covering on the egg cavity I use one to two handfuls of fine sawdust.

I have also tried to use horizontal nest-boxes, but as yet have had no'

success with these as the birds preferred the usual form. I will y

however, continue my attempts with the horizontal boxes next year.


From now onwards more egg-food was offered and a great deal of

half-ripe grass seed, also half-ripe oats. In the early period the half-

ripe grass seed no doubt formed the chief food of the young, and as soon

as you got near the cage with the bunches of grass, you could see by

the behaviour of the cock how keen he was on this food.


The middle of July three strong youngsters flew out. They were

a long time getting accustomed to people. They dashed about the

cage whenever anyone came near. By avoiding all hasty movements-



