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Sydney Porter—Wanderings in the Far East



had a very tame Purple-capped Lory and a Scaly-breasted, all of

which arrived home safely. Lories make delightful pets, but their great

drawback is that they are very messy birds and need a great deal

of cleaning out. In one of the shops I purchased some of the exquisite

Long-tailed Parrakeets (Psittacula longicauda) which, in my opinion,

is quite the loveliest of the Palseornis Parrakeets, to which family the

well-known King-necked Parrakeet belongs.


I have seen one or two bedraggled specimens over here but they

could not compare to the perfect specimens I saw in Singapore ; though

quite tame the birds were evidently freshly caught for they were in

perfect condition. Their plumage is unique with its varying greens,

blues, and lovely peach-bloom pink and their very long, whip-like blue

tails. The first bird I secured died of starvation whilst being taken

out to where I was staying in Johore, the wretched bird evidently

having been given no food since it arrived at the bird-shop. Later

on I secured four perfect specimens, two cocks and two hens. These

I left in Johore, but they unfortunately died whilst I was in China.

I do not think the feeding of these birds is properly understood, neither

do they live for any time in the bird-shops, in fact I think most die

of sheer starvation by being given hard, dry rice which they refuse to

eat. This is not surprising, as the birds feed mainly in the wild state

on the blossoms of various forest trees. I believe that the few specimens

which have reached this country have proved to be very delicate.


To get back to the Lories. I was told that in times past huge

numbers of these birds were imported into Singapore from New Guinea

and the Dutch East Indies, but so terrible was the mortality amongst

these beautiful and harmless birds that the administrative authorities

approached the Dutch Government with a view to co-operating with

them in the suppression of the traffic in these birds which were fast

diminishing in their respective islands. So the exportation of these

birds from the Dutch East Indies was stopped, which was a good

thing as the birds, owing to bad feeding and neglect, died off like

flies. I was told that in the old days if one went round to the bird-

shops in the early morning the floors would be covered with dead birds

which were thrown out of the cages and were swept up and often

filled several dustbins outside the shop. Now, the few Lories one



