3B0 The Marquess of Tavistock—Breeding Notes for 1933



pair being kept back from nesting are a very real danger both with

Grass Parrakeets and some of the smaller members of the Ringneck

family and it is often wise to separate the sexes. The alternative of

letting them nest when they want to is worse than useless and merely

results in young dead in the nest or shell, clear eggs, and a wasted

season. The Plumheads just mentioned last year reared four green

young which, to prevent accidents, I wintered in a flight cage in the

heated birdroom. I did not turn them out till the very end of May

but even so I was too early and a few cool days resulted in the two

hens developing chills which in one case proved fatal, although the

patient was taken into the hospital on the first sign of illness. Until

they have completed their first moult young Plumheads are more

liable to chill than any Parrakeet I know, and, like Long-tailed

Parrakeets and Vasa Parrots, they do not appear to have the slightest

power of recovery even from what, in another bird, would be a most

trifling illness.


Another menage that came to an end through incompatibility

of temperament was that of the Salawati and Amboina Kings. After

living with him for nearly two years and producing a young one that

died when ready to leave the nest, the Amboina without warning fell

upon her mate and scalped him. Thinking that her temper might

have been embittered by worry over her offspring and the approaching

moult I resolved to give the couple another chance. Accordingly,

when both were in breeding condition, I again introduced the Salawati.

The two birds seemed delighted to see each other, inspected the nest

together and went to roost side by side, but by 9 a.m. the following

morning she had scalped him again ! The Apache tendencies of the

Amboina King are most trying and unexpected and clearly it will be

impossible to breed from her unless I can obtain a powerful male of

her own large race able to keep her in proper subjection.


When the Salawati had recovered from his second adventure I tried

him with the Sula Island King, though with some misgiving as on a

previous occasion she had bullied him. This time, rather to my

surprise, she behaved better and allows him to be master. They have

not, however, nested, possibly because the Sula Island must now be

getting very old as I have had her not far short of 20 years.



