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for a long time much puzzled me, so quickly was 

 it done. After much watching I made out that it 

 consisted in partially turning a somersault forwards 

 through his own feet while they were still on the 

 perch, and in then letting go and finishing in the air, 

 having dropped behind the perch and not as would be 

 expected in front of it. Another feat of his I was 

 never able to satisfactorily follow though it was 

 always done comparatively slowly. First of all his 

 head would be bent down and passed right through 

 his feet, then he would seize the bar with his beak 

 underneath from behind and from that position would 

 in the most curious way get round the perch and 

 come up all right on the other side. Sometimes too, 

 while clinging to the wires at the side of the cage, he 

 would get his head down in front of his body and 

 make a complete revolution without dropping to the 

 ground. In doing this it is obvious that he would 

 have to let go of the wires, but the odd part of it was 

 that you could never detect exactly how or when it 

 it was effected. This trick was occasionally varied by 

 his standing with one foot on the perch and with the 

 other abducted and placed perhaps an inch up the 

 wires and by his then revolving so to speak on his 

 own axis through his feet. A favourite diversion was 

 to lean forward, grasp the perch with his beak, and to 

 slowly "circle the bar" very much after the time- 

 honoured fashion current in our own gymnasia; 

 sometimes this little exercise would be finished up 

 by his hanging from the perch by his beak for a few 

 seconds and then quietly dropping to the floor. 



While all these evolutions, evidencing as they did 

 a distinctly healthy mind in a remarkably healthy 

 body, were interesting enough to watch, they were 

 nothing compared with those which he sometimes 

 performed merely as the result of a sudden ebullition 

 of high animal spirits. Then he was boisterous in 



