108



Breeding Notes from New Zealand and Australia



beautiful pair of youngsters, able to fly almost as well as the parents

the day they left the nest.


A pair of Crimson Wings nested on the floor of their house early in

October, laying one egg and two days later a soft-shelled egg in the

flight. The hen died two days later. I gave the cock Crimson Wing a

Fiji King hen for a mate. They produced two infertile eggs.


One pair of Cockatiels reared two young from three eggs and are

nesting again on four eggs.. A second pair laid but did not sit.


A cock Red Rump and hen Indian Plum-head mating produced

three infertile eggs.


The Stanleys appeared anxious to nest, as also did a Red Rump

and Hooded mating, but I am afraid I was at fault, having other pairs

in the same flight.


With regard to nesting places, I do not think the kind of nest would

have much influence, my opinion being that, if the birds are in condition

and humour for breeding, they will take on almost any kind of nest.

The Cockatiels had a box with half a husk in the bottom. The Plum-

heads took charge of a large coco-nut husk, the Fiji King and the

Rainbow selected a barrel and the Galahs appeared to be the least

particular. The first pair nested in a box about two feet deep, with a

hole near the top. They chewed through and came out the bottom

several times. The last bottom I replaced I shaped in the form of a

nest. They then decided to carry all the chips back and make a nest

of them. They built up about six inches deep of wood chips and

shavings, adding leaves of the gum tree up till the time the young left

the nest. Their second nest was the same box, with the old nesting

material undisturbed.


Another G-alah used a barrel with no nesting material. After

several days, to prevent the eggs rolling about, I built up with shavings

and gum leaves, and they carried on quite unconcerned. With reference

to feeding the Galahs, up to the time of nesting they did well on ordinary

parrot mixture. After they started nesting, I gave them a choice of a

large selection of various seeds. Of these, they favoured in the following

order :—sunflower, whole maize, special white millet, peanuts' in the

shell, Spanish Canary, wheat, and hemp. In addition, they were

supplied with large quantities of seeding grasses and seed heads of



