Psittacus discolor. Russ. Synonyms: Psittacus humeralis, Bchst.; Psittacus Lathami, Khl.;

Euphema discolor, Wagl.; Lathamus discolor, Gld.

German: Der Schwalbenlori, oder der Lori mit rosenrothem Gesicht.

SWIFT PARRAKEET, OR LORIKEET.

NOTWITHSTANDING its English and German names, some authorities consider it more than doubtful whether this pretty little bird has any claim to be called a Lory: it eats seeds readily, and though not averse to sponge-cage, sugar, and mealworms, will live very well without these dainties, and is so hardy that it will thrive perfectly in a suitably constructed out-door aviary all the year round, which is scarcely to be wondered at, when one considers that its principal habitat, Tasmania, rejoices in a temperate climate, bearing much resemblance to that of the south of England, and that a considerable degree of cold prevails, during the winter, in both places.

Although common enough in their own country, the Swifts are not very frequently imported here; and when a few do occasionally arrive they always command a high price, which places them beyond the reach of ordinary amateurs.

Concerning this species Mr. Wiener writes as follows: - "Immediately after arrival these birds are delicate, and require careful feeding on millet and canary seed, and soaked bread or sponge-cake, to both of which a little honey may be added with advantage."

We have not found them delicate, and think that when landed in good condition they soon recover from the effects of the voyage, and, as we have said, become so hardy as to pass without inconvenience the winter out of doors.

The Swift is a pretty bird; the general colour of the plumage is bright green, a narrow band of scarlet marks the forehead, the top of the head is black, bordered with blue, the throat is deep red, the shoulders and upper part of the primaries blue, the under side of the wings red, the tail red with a blue tip, the breast and belly green, with a yellow shade, flecked with red, the beak is reddish yellow, the legs and feet grey, and the eyes black.

The female bears a general resemblance to her mate, but is rather smaller.

The usual diet of these birds in captivity is canary and millet, but boiled oats may be advantageously added, and, during the breeding season, bread crumbs, coarse oatmeal, and a few insects of some kind, black-beetles or tipulae rather than mealworms, but the latter, cautiously, in preference to none.

The Swifts make their nesting-places in the hollow boughs of the gum trees of their native land, and lay from four to seven white eggs, a little larger than those of the Budgerigar, and have usually two broods during the season, which extends from September to January. We have not heard of their having been bred in captivity as yet: in fact they are so seldom imported, that but few amateurs have had an opportunity of making the attempt.

In the Zoological Society's Gardens the Swifts are fed on boiled rice sweetened, and are not allowed any water; under such a course of treatment it is not surprising that there should frequently be a change of tenants in the cages allotted to them.

The price is about £3 a piece, or very nearly the weight of the bird in gold: it would consequently be well worth the while of any amateur to try and breed them, and this we intend doing as soon as practicable; for hardy as they are, when once fairly acclimatised, easy to feed, at least in comparison with many other species that are kept and bred without difficulty, none of the elements of success are wanting in their case.

While it is admitted on all sides by aviarists that immense pleasure and satisfaction is found to exist in the successful rearing of a brood of even the commonest birds of exotic origin that are kept in cages or aviaries, the enjoyment is enhanced ten-fold, nay a hundred, even a thousand-fold, when the fostering care of a painstaking amateur results in the appearance on the scene of a young family of rare and beautiful birds, which have never before been bred in England. What a wonderful amount too of pleasant gratification there is in penning a full, true, and particular account of that success for some bird-loving friend, or even for a gentle public enamoured of bird-life, and only too anxious to go and do likewise.

Well, everyone must make a beginning, and if the advice given in these pages is exactly and carefully followed, we flatter ourselves that much of the disappointment and failure that attended our early efforts in the pursuit of aviculture will be avoided, and success crown the attempt of even the tyro in the occupation, which is of such an engrossing nature that, we firmly believe, once it has been fairly taken up, it will never be entirely abandoned while life and health endure.

How we have digressed to be sure, and how far we have left our Swifts behind us! Well, they are such nice birds, and we were and are so anxious that amateurs should make a trial of breeding them in this changeable climate of ours, that the object of our digression will, we trust, obtain us pardon for its length.

The Swift Parrakeet differs considerably from its congeners in the shape of its wings, the primaries of which are narrow, and more than twice the length of the secondaries, consequently its flight is not only very powerful, but widely undulating in character; in fact so rapid is the progress of one of these birds through the air, that none but a most experienced shot could hope to bring it down.

The peculiar shape of the wings has caused more than one scientist to separate the Swift from the rest of the family, and constitute it a genus, of which it remains the only known species: but such minute distinctions are confusing and unnecessary, and have, very wisely, been discarded by many modern ornithologists, especially by Dr. Russ, who, recognising but one genus, distinguishes the various members of the Parrot family from one another, by specific names only; whether they be Cockatoos, Lories, Parrakeets or Parrots proper; their one generic appellation in the pages of his invaluable works is Psittacus: an arrangement that should at once commend itself to every thoughtful ornithologist, as there can then no longer be a doubt as to what family a bird with this prefix belongs.

In bird nomenclature, as in every other subject of popular study, simplicity and uniformity should, as far as possible, be the order of the day, and Dr. Buss has taken a right step in this direction, for which the thanks of all students of ornithology are due to him; and as his works become better known, and, consequently, properly appreciated, the horrible jargon, compounded of sonorous but too frequently inappropriate Greek and Latin words, will fall into well-merited oblivion, and birds be classed, as plants are, in "natural orders" rather than in genera, founded on trivial, or even imaginary distinctions.

The Swift is an example of the fact observed by many naturalists that while Parrots of the same species are found at great distances from each other when they are inhabitants of a continent, in islands each little sea-engirt morsel of land maintains one or more species peculiar to itself, and unknown even to other islets of the same group, however short the distance that separates them: this is peculiarly the case in many of the island-groups of Polynesia, and those that are contiguous to the great island-continent of Australia.

It having been lately denied that the Hobart Town Swift was a honey-eater, we may refer the reader to the late John Gould's account of this Parrakeet in his magnificent work The Birds of Australia, where he specially mentions having shot them in the vicinity of Hobart, as the capital of Tasmania is now called, and seen clear honey, to the extent of a dessert spoonful drop from their beaks when he held them up by their feet: and we have been assured of the same fact by other trustworthy informants, who had spent many years in the colony.

Since writing the above we have read an account of the Swift by M. Alfred Rousse, of Fontenay-le-Comte, who says (we translate): "This pretty Parrakeet is as hardy as possible, and deserves to be better known and more generally kept than it is. It bred with me in 1882, the first instance, I believe, of its nesting in confinement. I had had the birds in my possession since 1880. Incubation lasted twenty-one days, and in thirty more the young left the nest. This year again I have had a brood. The number of young to a nest (only one a year) varies from three to five. The sex of the young birds is at once apparent, as the red marks on the head of the males are already well developed."