Helmut Hampe—Tame Lovebirds



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many commoner Ducks were reared, but the eggs of the Emperor

Geese were infertile. Two Black-necked Swans were hatched, but

only one reared. A good many Chukar Partridges and Jungle Fowl

and Silver Pheasants were reared. The Brush Turkeys had a nice

sized nest with about twenty eggs, none were hatched. The Tigrine

Doves from India are quite established and breed regularly all over

the garden and near the house. Demoiselle Cranes laid, but their

eggs were eaten up by other Cranes. The results on the whole are

not very encouraging, but I hope for better luck this year. From

the birds in the aviaries I don’t expect very much as there are too

many birds in them.


I again reared one White Bahama.



TAME LOVEBIRDS


By Helmut Hampe


Tame Budgerigars, as is well known, make delightful pets.; soon

there will be hardly a house which does not contain its talking specimen.

It is astonishing what a great variety of speech these little Australians

can master, indeed few other Parrots can vie with them. Many other

species, however, can be made as tame, the various Lovebirds for

instance. They all become perfectly tame and affectionate, provided

of course that they are properly managed, especially if they are taken

from the nest at the right moment and hand-reared.


It is not my intention to describe how to do this in this article,

so I will only say that Lovebirds take far more readily to artificial

feeding than Budgerigars do ; they usually take the warm mixture

at once even if they are four weeks old, which very rarely happens with

Budgerigars of that age. This naturally makes hand-rearing the

Agapornidas, much easier, and though their training began so late they

become just as tame, provided they are kept strictly separate and

receive sufficient attention. They then become far tamer than most

Budgerigars and are never so happy as when they are with their

masters. They give a great deal of pleasure, but are unfortunately

fond of employing their powerful beaks in gnawing and nibbling one’s

fingers, a habit which after a time becomes insupportable even when



