DEATHS AMONG PARROTS

Evening Star, Issue 22687, 29 June 1937, Page 12

DEATHS AMONG PARROTS

CAUSE INVESTIGATED HOT THOUGHT TO BE PSITTACOSIS Many owners of parrots in the city have been concerned in the last fortnight at the death of their pets (reports the ‘Press’). In the last 10 days six specimens of the one species —Blue Mountain lorikeets—have been sent to the Canterbury Museum with a dual request—that they might bo mounted for and that an investigation ho made into the cause of their death. Mr B. A. Falla, curator of the museum, told a reporter yesterday that, while the investigation into the actual cause of death had not yet been made, he thought that most of the deaths could be attributed to chill. Used to a dry climate, the birds could stand a dry cold spell, but the unusual humidity of the cold spell recently experienced might have been too much for them. Ho scouted a possibility that the deaths might be due to psittacosis. It would be a remarkable occurrence if the disease had broken out, he said, in view of the stringent precautions governing the importation of birds. _ The six specimens of the blue-bellied lorikeet sent in to the museum are not the only parrots whose deaths have been reported. Other pets have died in city homes and been sent to the museum, but all the deaths known, however, are of the larger species of parrots. No African, lovebirds or budgerigars have been sent to Mr Falla. Some of the birds sent in are splendid specimens, and, properly mounted and arranged, will make welcome additions to the museum’s present collection.