Psittacus cyanopygus, Russ. Synonyms: Asprosmictus scapulatus, Gld.; Psittacus scapulatus, Khl.;

KING PARROT OR PARRAKEET.

Platycercus scapulatus, Vgrs.; Platycercus cyanopygus, Fnsch.; etc.

German: Der Konigs-Sittich.

THIS Parrot is very generally, but erroneously, called the King Lory, for it undoubtedly belongs to the Platycerci, and not to the Lories: it is a large handsome bird, slightly exceeding the well-known Grey Parrot in size, and with a very much longer tail: the head, neck, and all the under surface of the body, including the under tail coverts, are deep red, while the back and wings are dark green, growing deeper and deeper in shade to the tail, which is nearly black; the under surface of the tail feathers is black; the rump is blue, and the wings are marked with a spot of very light green. The feet are leaden grey, the upper mandible is orange red, with a black tip, and the lower black above, and below a dark slate grey.

The female, or Queen, is such a totally different-looking bird, that she was formerly considered by naturalists to belong to a different species. The general colour of her plumage is dingy green, with a reddish shade on the breast, and a deeper tinge of the same colour on the abdomen and the under tail coverts: the tail is not of such a deep blue black green as in the male, and she is a trifle smaller than her mate.

The young resemble their mother until their second year, when the males begin to assume the adult plumage. We have met with no published record of these handsome birds breeding in this country, but we have been assured than an amateur in an eastern county has succeeded more than once in obtaining a brood: and his mode of procedure was one so well calculated to ensure success, that our readers will doubtless be grateful to us for detailing the modus operandi for their benefit. A pair of adult King Parrots were placed in an out-door aviary, only a portion of which was protected from the weather, the interior was fitted up with logs suitable for nesting places, and the whole of the back covered with pieces of virgin cork. The King and Queen soon made themselves at home in their new abode, and commenced by looking out for a house among the hollow logs of various sizes that had been placed at their disposal by the owner: none of these, however, seemed to be to their taste, and after trying first one and then another, they gave up the logs as a bad job altogether, and selected for their residence a ledge under the roof in the inner portion of their abode, which was shaded from observation by a broad piece of cork, and on this ledge the Queen deposited her eggs, how many in number the owner could not tell, for he was afraid of disturbing the birds by looking, and in due course the hen hatched and reared her young, sometimes two, sometimes three in number.

As they are naturally shy and timid, the King Parrots should not be placed in the company of any other birds, especially if it be desired to induce them to breed. Personally we have not made any attempt at breeding these birds, but they are so thoroughly hardy, that there should be no difficulty in getting them to nest.

Although natives of New South Wales and Queensland, these birds seem to suffer more from heat than from cold, seldom living many years in the house, but lasting for a long time in a properly constructed and well-sheltered aviary out of doors.

The most suitable food for these birds in the house is grain of all kinds, some of which had better be soaked for them, green food of all sorts, given more sparingly in winter than in summer, nuts and fruit, or even a slice of raw potato: they are very fond of "bathing, and should always have an abundant supply of water within reach, but sop is an abomination that should never be offered to them, though a piece of sponge-cake or a biscuit will be relished, or even a slice of dry bread.

As the King Parrot grows slowly, it should be a long-lived bird, and, with proper care, is; but it cannot stand delicacies or coddling, which soon cause it to droop its wings and fade away, or to fall dead from its perch in a fit.

It will doubtless have been remarked that we have not hitherto touched upon what some writers make one of the most important features of their works, namely, the Diseases of Birds: our reason is that we consider domesticated birds when properly cared for have no diseases of a curable kind, and we have preferred giving plain directions for the suitable management of our pets, to a number of useless recipes for caring complaints that, with a little care and attention, would never have supervened to worry the owner and to kill the bird.

Coughs are avoidable, so are fits, so is egg-binding, so are colds, inflammations, and congestions, so are constipation and diarrhoea, and so in point of fact are all the ills that captive birds are, not heirs, but liable to, when kept by persons who think only of themselves and neglect their prisoners, or who have their heads crammed full of useless and too often mischievous old-fashioned notions as to feeding, coddling, and depriving the poor creatures of water.

Depend upon it, diseases are more readily prevented than cured. Keep your birds out of draughts, feed them as you find recommended in these pages, give them room to exercise their wings and feet in, company and occupation, and you will find that there will be no diseases to cure, and that old age, for which there is no preventive, will at last gently and insensibly usher them into - -we were about to write - a better land, but - after all who can tell whether the Great and Good Creator may not, in some portion of His boundless universe, have reserved a place where the unhappy members of what men are pleased to call the "brute" creation, may re-live their lives, and find compensation for the ills that, by no fault of theirs, they were made to suffer here? Who indeed! but we must forbear, the subject is not one for discussion in these pages.

The King Parrot is not a particularly bright or intelligent bird, still an odd male, now and again, will become exceedingly tame, and learn to repeat a few words, or even a short sentence, but to enable him to do even this, he must be taken in hand when very young, and much patience and perseverance be brought to bear upon the task. The female is a very silent bird, and we never knew one that learned to repeat even a single word: we are far, however, from saying that such a phenomenon as a talking Queen Parrot is impossible, but simply that we have neither seen nor heard of one.

It is unfortunately true, as an author who is well known as inimical to "dealers" asserts, that some importers of King Parrots "stove" up their birds to make them moult their nest feathers prematurely, and assume the adult garb, before the natural period for their doing so has come round, for we have seen the cruel practice in operation, and remonstrated, but were met by the assurance that the birds liked it, and that it agreed with them.

To which we replied that the poor things did not look as if they enjoyed being half-cooked alive in the dark, and that we believed a bird so treated was irretrievably weakened in constitution, and would never live out half its days: but a King "in colour" being worth more than double the price of a young bird in the nestling garb, the practice is persisted in (not by all dealers, however), and is one that the R.S.P.C.A. might well occupy itself with.

Dr. Buss much admires this handsome bird, and says of it: "Der groste und zugleich einer der prachtvollsten von alien, ctiesen Sittichen", (the largest, and at the same time one of the most magnificent of all these Parrakeets.)

Bechstein speaks of the King Parrot in his Natural History of Cage Birds, and says it is a native of Amboina, though he admits that he was told it came from "Botany Bay"; he describes the difference between the sexes correctly, yet Dr. Finsch, writing at a much later date, says that they are alike, "beide Geschlecter gleich sein", which Dr. Buss justly characterizes as "ein Irrthum", a mistake. But who is infallible? even the last-mentioned doctor, great authority as he undoubtedly is on bird matters, nods sometimes, as we may have occasion to point out later on.

The King Parrot is a very gentle and amiable bird, so much so, that it may be safely trusted in an aviary full of small birds, but in such a situation it is not at all likely that it will breed, as small birds are of a prying and inquisitive nature, and the King and Queen are shy, and brook no interference from anybody with their domestic arrangements: they do not punish, as they very well might, the intruder on their privacy, the disturber of their rest, they simply forsake the log or box they had intended to take up their abode in, and try again elsewhere: their motto, being, apparently, "Anything for a quiet life", and if very much disturbed they will give up the attempt, and leave their tormentors in possession of the ground: it is therefore necessary to give a pair of these birds a good-sized aviary, or bird-room, preferably the former, all to themselves, and we have no doubt, though we have not personally made the experiment, that so situated they would be certain to breed, and really the experiment is one that would be well worth trying, for these birds always command a good price in the market: and the only objection to raising them is that they are two years old before they don their adult plumage; but, on the other hand, they are small eaters, and cost but very little to keep.

In their own country the King Parrots eat, especially during the breeding season, a considerable number of insects, but they will do very well without such dainties in captivity; though, perhaps, if they had young ones to feed, it might be as well to supply them with a few mealworms daily: such a practice, however, is open to objection, for once begun, it would have to be continued, and mealworms are sometimes difficult to be obtained in this country, although in Germany they are regularly bred; but in all bird-matters we are, as yet, very far behind our Teutonic friends.

Although, for its size, this species has not a very large or powerful beak, it is, nevertheless, as partial as any of its congeners to " whittling", and should always be provided with a piece of semi-decayed wood upon which to exercise its beak, and thus enable it to while away the time, which, doubtless, often hangs heavy enough - we were going to say Upon its hands - but at all events it is, no doubt, frequently at a loss how to employ itself; occasionally turning round and plucking out its own feathers for want of something else to do.

It happens now and then that a Parrot having moulted does not regain its plumage, and the owner imagines that the bird itself eats its feathers, which is not the case, the poor thing has not the strength to reproduce them, and after a longer or shorter interval of wretched nakedness dies.

Such a bird is suffering from extreme debility, and requires in the first instance warmth; a temperature, say, of 70° Fahr., an abundance of nourishing food, chief of which is sound fresh hemp-seed, then sponge cake, canary-seed, lunch biscuit, apples, and nuts, and, for medicine, ten drops of Parrish's Chemical Food to each ounce of its drinking water. We have seen port-wine, brandy, and quinine recommended among many other things, but the regimen we have just described, will, unless the poor bird be too far gone, soon restore it to health, and the owner will have the pleasure of once more beholding his favourite clothed as Nature intended it should be.

As soon as the reparative process is complete, the temperature of the place where the bird is kept - a warm conservatory makes a capital bird-hospital - must be gradually and cautiously lowered to that in which it is decided to keep it, but draughts must be studiously avoided, or inflammation of the lungs is certain to set in, when, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, and in spite of the utmost care and attention, the poor creature will die.

Inflammation of the lungs, pneumonia, is much more readily prevented than cured in birds, but when it does occur, warmth and nourishment are the only remedies, and generally the sufferer will not feed, sometimes even it will not drink, though usually the thirst is excessive; in such a case we have seen it recommended to give milk and chicken-broth, and should be disposed to give the latter a trial; not cold, but just tepid, and if the bird would not take that, we should advise a small quantity to be poured down its throat every now and then with a spoon.

In a case that came under our own observation, the patient's cage was wrapped up, all but a small space in front, in a blanket, and set upon the dresser in a very warm kitchen, where the fire was kept up, for the Parrot's especial benefit, all night as well as during the day; he was fed on sponge-cake and hemp-seed, he would eat nothing else, and a teaspoonful of sherry was put in his drinking water: in a couple of days he was all right, screaming and chattering as usual.

A lady of our acquaintance who has kept a King Parrot for four years, sends us the following interesting account of her pet: - "My King has been in my possession for four years, and the person who had him before me had kept him three years, so that he is at least eight years old, but probably nine, or more. I feed him upon canary-seed, hemp, and boiled maize, and supply him with plenty of coarse sand and fresh water; for he not only drinks freely, but is extraordinarily fond of washing himself. When he came into my possession he was in a very low weak state, and I thought I should have lost him; he had been dieted for some time on canary-seed only, and could scarcely stand, but by nursing him and giving him hemp and boiled maize, and biscuit, captain biscuit, which I used to chew for him, he soon came round, and has never ailed anything since. He is very tame and gentle, and talks very nicely: some of the sentences he pronounces very distinctly, ' Polly, put the kettle on'; 'Mother, call the doctor'; 'Mother, kiss your darling'; 'Kiss Sukey, there's a dear', and so on: he is rather shy and silent before strangers, but is very talkative and amusing when I am with him in the room alone. He is in very fine condition, and apparently in the best of health."

For the correctness of this description we can vouch, for we have rarely seen a bird of this species in better feather, although he is kept in the heart of London; he does not seem, however, to miss the fresh air in the least, but appears to be perfectly happy and contented: for companions he has a Grey Parrot, a Cockatiel, several Canaries, and some Collared Doves.