HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



lUc 



and let liim out in the carriage to show my fellow- 

 passengers : I have left him for au hour or two in 

 the cloak-room, where he behaved with perfect pro- 

 priety and surprised the porters. 



I once took him away with me on a three weeks' 

 visit to a country house. He was very much ad- 

 mired, came in-doors a good deal, was brought into 

 dessert the first evening. He often sat on the top 

 of the library door, preening his feathers and making 

 a curious singing noise, peculiar to him when very 

 friendly and contented. He makes it to me gene- 

 rally when I talk to him, and scratches my face 

 gently with his beak. 



While on this visit I found out what Pharaoh 

 could be frightened at. He was in a shed at the 

 farm, where I left him sitting on a rail ; a party of 

 little calves were in the shed, and one of them trolted 

 towards Pharaoh, who, in a sudden fit of terror, 

 jumped into a tub of water, from which I rescued 

 him. He runs up my arm to my shoulder if he is 

 frightened, as I find he is at a horse sometimes, and 

 I just tuck him under my jacket if we meet any. He 

 will nestle quietly for any length of time. 1 found 

 out that he likes to take a bath ; I did not think of 

 supplying him with one till I saw him trying to 

 bathe in his jam-pot of drinking-water. If it raius, 

 he goes out and sits in it till he looks the most 

 wretched little object, his very small though plump 

 body showing its shape through the tight soaked 

 feathers. We moved in the autumn to a house 

 quite in the country ; I had a little fowl-house with 

 a small wire enclosure put up in the farmyard, in 

 order to keep four bantam fowls ; I put Mr. Pharaoh 

 in as well, as an experiment. It has turned out 

 perfectly ; they all five roost on the same perch, 

 Pharaoh always in his own particular place ; and I 

 have seen him turn out a hen which got into it 

 once. 



I do not think he cares for the fowls, or they for 

 him, and they live peaceably on the plan of complete 

 indifTerence ; he is tiresome sometimes in making 

 the nests untidy with feathers, and sitting and 

 screaming when he is huugrj^, but he scarcely ever 

 screams now as he did when an infant. I have put 

 up a perch in the outer wired place, and he sits 

 there occasionally. A few days ago a friend sent 

 me a pair of brown and black guinea-pigs ; I thought 

 I would have a sort of happy family. I have had 

 an old wine-case turned into a little house for the 

 pigs, with a little hole for them to come in and out 

 just as they please, and have the run of the fowls' 

 little yard, the same as Pharaoh has. That wise 

 prince has discovered the luxury of the warm box, 

 and actually goes in at the little door and sits in the 

 hay with the two poor little guinea-pigs. I only 

 hope he may be a safe friend for them. 



Pharaoh has never killed anything himself except 

 a black beetle, and that we had to push back every 

 time Pharaoh missed his mark. At last he struck 



it with his beak, took it in his claw and ate it like 

 a small sweet-cake. 



I have mice now for him, and plenty of birds are 

 shot for him by our farm man. He had a rook once 

 that lasted some days : it was extraordinary to see 

 him pull off mouthfuls of feathers and eat them. 

 1 once watched him eating a starling ; he pulled oft" 

 the head first, and swallowed it ; it looked so strange 

 to see the starling's long sharp beak gradually dis- 

 appearing down Pharaoh's beak, which is very little 

 larger. He eats a mouse whole generally, unless it 

 is a very large one, and then he will sometimes take 

 oft' the headfirst. I took him to pay a call the 

 other day, and a friend gave him a specimen of the 

 long-tailed field-mouse; Pharaoh with jerks and 

 throwing back his head swallowed the fat body of 

 the mouse, and then with half-closed eyes and 

 swollen nose (which are always his characteristics 

 when he has had plenty to eat), he sat on a wooden 

 chair in my friend's room, the long tail hanging 

 gracefully from his beak. The tail grew gradually 

 shorter, but it was some time before it disappeared 

 entirely. 



The orifices of Pharaoh's ears are very large, and 

 iiidden in ,the thick grey feathers of his face : his 

 hearing is very acute. I was sitting in-doors one 

 day with him, and he turned suddenly and made his 

 little quick caw-like noise and stared out ; I listened, 

 and after a minute could hear a faint step on the 

 gravel a long way off, gradually coming nearer, and 

 Pharaoh watched carefully till some one passed the 

 window. He knows if he sees any creature for the 

 first time, and looks at it with great attention. 

 When we first came here, I took him to see the pig. 

 He followed every movement of the pig with his 

 great surprised eyes, and whenever the pig grunted 

 Pharaoh made a little observant remark. The next 

 time I took him he did not notice the pig more than 

 a moment, but sat on the wall of the sty, and stared 

 the other way. He can turn his head so as to look 

 down the middle of his back ; but the thing it is most 

 curious to see him do, is to twist his face gradually 

 round till his chin is exactly in the place where the 

 top of his head should be by nature. He does 

 this when he is looking at anything in a very 

 scrutinizing manner and cannot understand it, or 

 thinks a bird is being brought for him. 



I think an owl about the most companionable 

 bird any one can keep. This spring there will be, no 

 doubt, a fresh supply of owls in the market, or in 

 their country homes. It is well worth while to 

 bring one up ; no taming seems necessary, no wild- 

 ness seems possible to my Pharaoh, though I notice 

 now and then a little disposition to bite strangers, 

 particularly gentlemen; but if anyone speaks gently 

 to him before touching him, there is never any diffi- 

 culty. Pharaoh is a wonderfully nice bird ; he 

 adapts himself to any circumstances ; he lived for 

 three weeks in a green-house, looking beautiful 



