Indian Ring-necked Parakeet Trivia or the History of the Lutino, Blue, Turquoise, and Albino Mutations

I n the archives of Roman history there are records of Octavian obtaining parrots from India in the first century B.C. Also, according to Pliny, the prices demanded for exotic (foreign) birds precluded all but the very wealthy from participating in aviculture. The lutino mutation of the Indian Ring-necked Parakeet has been in aviculture for a long time. In 1918 the Duke of Bedford at his Woburn (England) estate had at least one lutino female. He reported rearing normally colored young from it that year. Further, he laments his frustrations for many years wherein the male offspring from the split males (the genetics of the lutino were not understood at that time) were weak and died very easily. This occurring before hatching, before and shortly after leaving the nest. By 1932, Bedford had a few healthy lutinos and the mutation was well on its way to becoming firmly established. In 1934, Alfred Ezra, after eight years of effort, successfully reared two good lutinos. Both the Bedford and Ezra aviaries held some wild caught lutino females. By this time, the Keston Foreign Bird Farm was also breeding lutinos. In the 1920s, Masauji Hachisuka in his paper Variations Among Birds stated that at least one and more probably two blue Ring-necked Parakeets were being kept by the potentate Mr. M. G. Mallick in Calcutta. From conversations with people who had seen these birds it appears that these were probably both males. They were said to be kept in individual cages of gold and no attempt was ever made to breed them (with normal birds obviously) in order to perpetuate this color phase. Then in 1941, Bill Sheffler, in his · Arizona aviaries raised one blue from normal appearing parents. This bird was accidentally killed when Mr, Sheffler tried to catch it for relocation to another aviary. During the next 12 years of successful breeding, the parent birds never produced another blue. Right at the end of World War II a British aviculturist soldier in India located a nesting hollow within his compound. The parent birds both green, fledged four young, one of which was blue. By 1947 the British Psittacine Registry showed almost as many lutino as normal colored Ringnecks in England. In 1948, when Sidney Porter visited California and spent some time with Mr. and Mrs. F. Harold Rudkin, jr., he was surprised that there were no lutinos in the U.S.A.. Then in 1949 the Rudkins visited England and with the help of Mr. Porter obtained two green split to ino males and two lutino females. These were brought back to the Rudkins' aviaries in Fillmore, California, and formed the nucleus of the lutinos in this country. Also in 1949, an Indian dealer from Calcutta offered two blue Ringnecks to Harold Rudkin and George West (Dave West's father) for $1,000. At that time they were helieved to he the only ones alive in captivity in the world. The U.S. laws at that time prohihited the importation of psittacine hirds. The only way to hring in any psittacines at all were to show proof that the hirds had been in one's possession outside the U.S. for a minimum of 30 days. If that were the case, a U.S. citizen could legally hring in two birds per year per family as family pets. Because neither Rudkin nor West could show the proof, the hirds were returned to India. It is most likely that these were the same two hlues that the Duke of Bedford ohtained from India later that same year. In 1950 Harold Rudkin's lutino hreeding program was in full swing and very successful (probably even Sheldon Dingle remembers this). In 1952 the Duke sent two young, hlues to Dave West plus two additional in 1953. These were the foundation of the hlues in the U.S.-the birds, not the music. In 1953, Ray Thomas, a wealthy aviculturist resident of Bel Air, California, imported two hirds from a Calcutta dealer. These hirds were advertised as Blue Simon. (meaning pure). They were in fact the first turquoise known. Because they were not the pure hlue as advertised, Thomas refused to either pay for or return them. He used to laugh about this while at the same time admitting to heing very pleased with them. Dave West and Gordon Hayes ohtained these hirds and their offspring upon Ray's death and they are responsible for establishing this muta- · tion in aviculture. The possibility of an albino was being discussed in 1953 when the Duke of Bedford bred a blue male with a lutino female. At that time it was obvious to any experienced Budgie breeder that once you have a lutino and a blue, albino is in the picture. It was now just a matter of years, hampered by the scarcity of lutino males. In early 1954, there were 14 blues known in captivity. Four of them belonged to Dave West in California, nine were in England and one was on the European continent. Later in the year Dave West raised some young. Later in 1954, Harold Rudkin obtained four blues from Dave West. These were one adult pair and two juveniles West raised just that year. After the Duke of Bedford's untimely death in 1954, his original breeding pair of blues went to Edward]. Boosey at the Keston Foreign Bird Farm. Here they were also in very competent hands. In 1955, Dave West successfully raised two blues from the 1952 young which he had received from Bedford. This same year, Mr. Boosey raised four blues from the Duke's original breeding pair (he had raised only one in 1954) and five more in 1956. In 1956, Mr. Boosey found a green and yellow pied (harlequin) in a local pet shop. This bird was described as being green with large yellow blotches, the outer tail feathers yellow, some yellow on th.e forehead and mantle and flights pure bright yellow. In 1963 the Keston Foreign Bird Farm raised the first albino from a young male green split to ino and blue crossed with a female lutino split to blue. This baby left the nest in July, 1963. Unfortunately it died at a few months of age.