Ornithological and Other Oddities 



This bird joined us in the Red Sea two 

 days after we had left Suez, and so tamed by 

 exhaustion was he that, having at the time no 

 suitable cage, I let him roost all night on one 

 of the brass fittings of my cabin port-hole. 

 Next day he took a cockroach from my fingers, 

 and did not draw the line at one only of this 

 high-flavoured delicacy. So I had no difficulty 

 about his food, and was able on the following 

 day to exhibit him to our sympathetic skipper 

 seated on my finger, and devouring his orthop- 

 terous repast as happily as if on his native 

 bush. 



He at this time seemed still weak on the 

 wing, but by the time we had got to Aden 

 he had quite recovered, and felt able to try 

 his luck again, for the day after leaving that 

 port he squeezed through the bars of the cage 

 which the carpenter had constructed for him, 

 and flew out of the saloon skylight, disdaining 

 the cockroach I proffered to lure him back. 



For a little while he stayed in the rigging 

 to shake out his plumage and consider his 

 route, and then headed for land, which I 

 sincerely hope he reached, though it was about 

 sixty miles off. He had, at all events, scored 

 his passage down the Red Sea. 



The second stowaway I have to record was 



the last I have met, and the most remarkable. 



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