166 Dr. J. M. Derscheid—A Food for Lorikeets


A FOOD FOR LORIKEETS


By Dr. J. M. Derscheid, F.Z.S.


I do much admire the beautiful colour plates appearing in the

Avicultural Magazine, especially those by Boland Green, which,

in my opinion, are unsurpassed by any other, except perhaps the

paintings by the late Fuertes and some of those by Wilhelm Kuhnert.


I have recently added to my collection of Parrots and Parrakeets

a pair of White-breasted Caiques ; those birds are generally described

as having no sexual difference, but my birds evidently differ,

not by plumage but by the fact that one (I suppose the male) has

a much broader and heavier head than the second one ; the bill is

similar in both, but the colour of the iris is bright red in the supposed

male and dull brown-red in his mate.


At the end of January, I obtained some pairs of the little Blue

and White Lorikeets (Coriphilus peruvianus) from the Society Islands,

belonging to the same consignment as the Coriphilus imported then

by Lord Tavistock to England. Having inquired about the natural

food of these birds, I learned from Mr. Eastham Guild that those

delightful little birds feed essentially on the nectar of the small, yellow

flower of a tree called puatea by the natives of those islands ; but that

sometimes they are observed drinking the milk of a broken coco-nut, or

one in which the rats have gnawed a hole. As it is always a problem

to find some kind of fresh food in winter for those Lorikeets, when

sweet grapes are difficult to get, the above observation gave me the

idea of providing my Blue Lorikeets every day with fresh coco-nut

milk, slightly sweetened of course, in addition to their usual Lory food.

My birds seem to enjoy greatly this vegetable milk, and are thriving

on that diet, so that I thought that perhaps it would interest some

readers of your Magazine to know about it. Coco-nuts are cheap,

and at the same time their husks properly opened are useful and

inexpensive as nest-boxes for small Finches and even as dormitories

for the smallest Lorikeets. The fresh pulp of the nut is appreciated

as a titbit by a number of my Parrots and even by my Tabuan

Parrakeets (Pyrhulopsis tabuensis).


You may be interested to know that for the second time this winter



