. Birds I have kept in years gone by : with original anecdotes and full directions for keeping them successfully . mon hen-Sparrow,and produce hybrids. The Tree Sparrows are very hardy birds, and live inthe house for a number of years. The sexes, as I have said, are undistinguishable while alive,so that a number of these birds must be procured, on thechance of there being a female among them, and when twoare observed to be paired they must be separated from the•rest, and given a large cage, or aviary, to themselves, when,if supplied with suitable building materials, they will beginto mak
. Birds I have kept in years gone by : with original anecdotes and full directions for keeping them successfully . mon hen-Sparrow,and produce hybrids. The Tree Sparrows are very hardy birds, and live inthe house for a number of years. The sexes, as I have said, are undistinguishable while alive,so that a number of these birds must be procured, on thechance of there being a female among them, and when twoare observed to be paired they must be separated from the•rest, and given a large cage, or aviary, to themselves, when,if supplied with suitable building materials, they will beginto make a nest directly. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE BUDGEKIGAE. FOU years I longed to possess a pair of the bright greenLove-birds, as all small Parrots used to be formerlycalled, which I had so often seen sporting in countless myriadsin the bush, sucking the nectar from the blossoms of thegum-trees, but I longed in vain; for although the purser ofthe ship I returned to Europe in had invested in some hun-dreds of Shell Parrots, which he hoped to dispose of at apremium on his arrival in Liverpool, I scrupled to pay some-. THE B U D Pt E R I Ci A R. The Budgerigar. 101 thing about the weight of the birds in gold to gratify myfancy. The birds, however, which my friend the purser broughtover were not the bright green creatures I had seen in Vic-toria, but were natives of South Australia, where the settlerscalled them Shell Parrots, or Parrakeets, and the aboriginesBudgerigars, which is now their popular designation in thiscountry, although the Zoological Society, and the variousbird-shows throughout the kingdom, persist in calling themUndulated Grass Parrakeets. Although, as I have said,these birds are natives of the province of South Australia, Ihave nevertheless seen them in Victoria, two or three together,but suspect that these were stragglers from beyond theirnatural limits, or perhaps fortunate individuals who had madegood their escape from captivity. At one time these birds commanded as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectcagebir, bookyear1885
