96 The Story of Jobo. 



I inij^dit soon hear of one, but I had to wait some weeks. 

 At lasl one day I chanced to i^o to (damage's, and great 

 was my joy when I Jound thx^'y had just received a consign- 

 ment of Senegal Parrots. 1 selected, what looked a nice 

 iu\althy bird and judging by the jjale colour of the eye and 

 beak and the pinky tinge of the feet, I llK)ught he must be 

 quite young. I carried him home in triumph and expected in 

 a week to ha\c " My ideal pet." IIowe\er. I was doomed U) 

 disappointment. Whenever I entered the room Jobo squeezed 

 himself into the furtherest corner of his cai^e, remainin^^ per- 

 fectly still and terrihed with his fiead down. It is quite true 

 that at the end of a week he condescended to take a piece 

 of apple from my hnger, but that was as far as we got and 

 we remained at that point for many months. I have kept 

 and tamed many birds — Parrots in particular, and flattered 

 myself 1 was rather good in this respect— but Jobo took all 

 the conceit out of me. I tried letting him out — he dashed 

 wildly all over the room, into pictures and vases in the most 

 distressing manner and I was forced to catch him and cut a 

 a wmg. After that he was only able to run about the door, 

 or climb up and down a heavy dog chain that hangs from my 

 ceiling but as to allowing me to scratch his head or touch 

 him, it was impossible — he just went for me and my hands 

 were covered with nips from his sharp little beak, tlowever, 

 they say all things come to those who wait. One day I went 

 in,to my room — one of my Amazon Parrots was sitting on the 

 top of a chair close to Jobo's cage. As 1 passed the 

 Amazon I stopped to kiss hinl and he put his head down to 

 be scratched, and great was my surprise on looking up to 

 see that Jobo had come to the side of his cage as near to me 

 as he could get and had put liis head down to be scratched. 

 I put up my finger and gently rubbed the top of his head 

 — from that moment the trick was done — but i consider he is 

 one of the hardest birds I have ever tamed. 



Now, of course, he fulfils all Dr. Ilopkinson prophe- 

 sied and is absolutely the " ideal pet " and one of the nicest 

 birds 1 ha\e ever possessed, but it look about eight months 

 of patient work to accomplish it. 



