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Parrots for Pleasure and Profit - Their Breeding and Management
Parrots for Pleasure and Profit - Their Breeding and Management
Parrots for Pleasure and Profit - Their Breeding and Management
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Parrots for Pleasure and Profit - Their Breeding and Management

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This vintage book contains a concise and accessible guide to keeping parrots for pleasure and for profit. It has a special focus on their breeding and management. Full of invaluable tips and a wealth of useful, practical information, this volume is highly recommended for those with an interest in keeping parrots, and would make for a great addition to collections of related literature. The chapters of this book include: “Aviculture”, “Parrots for Pleasure and Profit”, “Grey Parrots”, “The Breeding of Hybrid Parakeets”, “New Zealand Parakeets”, “An Account of Six Popular Parrots”, and “Some Facts about Macaws”. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition - complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on aviculture.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 23, 2011
ISBN9781446546604
Parrots for Pleasure and Profit - Their Breeding and Management

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    Parrots for Pleasure and Profit - Their Breeding and Management - C. P. Arthur

    F.Z.S.

    PARROTS

    FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT

    BY C. P. ARTHUR

    In writing of Parrots one naturally deals with the Grey first, although the Blue-fronted Amazon runs it close as a talker, and is much hardier when first imported, requiring no special care.

    The Grey Parrot is so well known that a description may seem superfluous. However, I must go on the usual lines and begin by describing the bird. The Grey measures from ten to twelve inches long, and is a pretty pearl grey colour, being much brighter, however, on the rump between the wing tips; the feathers on the head and neck, and often on the underparts, are also edged with a much lighter grey. The tail is short and broad, and its colour is bright scarlet. The beak is black and very strong, and the face is bare white skin and appears to be covered with a chalky substance; in fact, even the bird’s feathers appear to be chalky. The eyes are straw colour and the legs ash colour.

    Young Greys when first imported may be distinguished by their dark grey, almost black, eyes, which begin to get paler when the birds are about seven months old, and when they reach the age of twelve months are almost as pale as in the adults.

    HOW TO SEX GREY PARROTS

    It is very difficult to distinguish the difference between the sexes, but a practised eye can usually tell the sex of a Parrot at a glance. In the case of such birds as Rosellas, Mealy Rosellas, and any other species in which the plumage of the sexes is exactly alike, if an aviculturist gets genuine pairs he can carefully compare them. I mean, sit and watch them closely, and look them well in the face, when he will soon get to know at a glance the hen from the cock as well as he knows his own friends apart. Of course, he will then be surprised that other people cannot see the difference in them as well as he can.

    I believe the late Mr. J. Abrahams was the one to discover a difference in the sex of Grey Parrots by the shape of the white skin on the face. He carefully compared them for a number of years, and came to the conclusion that the bare skin of the face was more rounded behind the eye in the case of the hen than in that of the cock. In the latter the white is more pointed behind the eye. My own-opinion is that male Grey Parrots are very scarce in this country, but for what reason I cannot say, unless it be that more males than females die on arrival. Why I have formed this opinion I will state. I have been a taxidermist for over thirty years, and during that time I have had many Grey Parrots pass through my hands for stuffing; some have been most accomplished talkers, one bird having a forty years’ reputation. Yet, during the whole of my experience I have never found one of them to be a male, although every one has been carefully dissected after being skinned.

    So, in choosing a Grey Parrot, I think no one need trouble about the sex of the bird. There is a Grey now only about a mile from my house, belonging to an old cottager; this bird is a most talented talker, and would not be dear at £10. Yet there is not a year goes by but she lays two or three white eggs in the bottom of her cage. So it is far more important in buying a grey to see that you get a good healthy bird than to trouble about its sex.

    [It should be pointed out to readers that there is, at the present time (1933), a Parrot ban in force in this country which prohibits the importation of any species of Parrot or Parrot-like bird from any country whatsoever. Budgerigars are included in this ban. Therefore those who now purchase Parrots from dealers’ shops can rest assured that any specimens to be viewed there have been in this country for some considerable time and are thus fully acclimatised. In nearly all cases to-day these birds offered by dealers have been in the possession of previous owners, so that one has

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