•252



H. Hamjpe—A Cross-bred Stanley X Rosella Parrakeet



while the other was paler and had a yellowish tinge. It certainly

was not sealing-wax red, as a female Stanley should be.


My belief that it was also a male not yet in colour turned out to

be correct, but the birds were so good that I kept them both and ordered

two more Stanleys from an experienced man, which he believed to be

two hens. He undertook to take them back if neither bird turned out

to be a female. Unluckily both these too were males and after a pro¬

longed examination I sent them back. After a time I sold the old

male, and after some years was able to pair it with a breeding hen

Stanley with which it bred good healthy birds.


Two years before this it paired with a young Rosella hen which

was wintered with him in a garden aviary. He fed and courted her

•even then in mild weather ; and at the beginning of May she laid six

fertile eggs which, however, were forsaken shortly before the young

were due to hatch. Soon after she laid a second clutch of four eggs

also fertile, although by that time the male had begun to moult. But

this time I was prepared and the two remaining eggs were put under

Budgerigars (the other eggs had been crushed). After twenty days an

egg was hatched and luckily was well fed at once on sop. Besides this,

if it had not had much from its foster-parents, I gave it a little millet

meal moistened with raw egg and mixed with fresh ants’ eggs, meal¬

worm juice, minced liver, and charcoal, also fine gravel, crushed oats,

and “ Spratts ”. The nestling took this food willingly : it was, of course,

made fresh every day and given warm, and it lived on a coarser prepara¬

tion of it exclusively by the time it was three weeks old. Its development

was normal as this table shows.



Daily Age



Newly


hatched



o


O |



o



7



9



11



13



15



17



19



21



24



26



40



218



Weight in

grammes



5



13



24



33



35



43



49



54



62



71



72



77



80



72



75



It must be borne in mind that young Stanleys weigh about 60

grammes, young Rosellas 80 to 95. The father of this hybrid weighed

.60 grammes, the mother 110 grammes.



