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I. Harman—Two Handsome Honeyeaters



Red Rosella at Keston this year behaved in the same way. Yellow-

mantled Rosellas reared four and have another brood in the nest.


A young cock Yellow-belly I bred two years ago and a new hen

had a family of five but one was killed in the same night alarm as

killed the Barraband. The old pair have young in the nest.


Pennants had two good young ones and one rickety one that had

to be destroyed.


Yellow-rumps also had two good young and one rickety one.


The cock Stanley died when the hen was only starting to lay,

but she finished her clutch and hatched four and reared them single-

handed.


The success with Swift Parrakeets has been recorded elsewhere,

one pair rearing two young and the other, one.


A pair of Sclaters Hanging Parrots had been very anxious to nest

all winter. They soon took to a nest but the hen got badly egg-

bound with a soft-shelled egg which had to be removed artificially—

a difficult operation, reflecting credit on my aviary attendants’ skill.


Some weeks later she laid a normal egg, also with difficulty, and

incubated it, but it proved clear. A further attempt was made but

the first egg disappeared and the second is now being sat on. The

Sclaters are the first tame and friendly Hanging Parrots I have had

but I fear, like all their genus, they are going to prove infertile in

captivity in this country—I wonder why ?



TWO HANDSOME HONEYEATERS


By Ian Harman


It is surprising bow rarely one comes across any of the Honeyeaters

in captivity. This great Australian family, the Meliphagidae , includes

151 species, every one of which is worthy of a place in the bird-room.

This large company is divided up into many sub-families, and the

species vary considerably in appearance and coloration. Not all of

them are gaily coloured as the well-known Noisy Miner ( Myzantha,

garrula) which looks like one of the Starling family. Some are most

curious as the Friar-bird (Tropidorhynchus corniculatus) and the

Yellow Wattle-bird (. Acanthochaera carunculata).



