IQ8 From Magazines, &-c. [,.f jan 



and verse that everyone should be famihar with it. Following 

 are some extracts from the article : — 



" Owing to the fact that the importation of this bird is now 

 strictly prohibited, a heavy tine being the penalty, the price of 

 Piping Crows has risen by leaps and bounds — anything up to £io 

 being asked by dealers ; in fact, they are hardly to be procured 

 at any price. Times change, truly ; my first Crow cost me just 

 under a sovereign. Writers speak of the ' joyous whistle of the 

 Piping Crow,' but there is little of a joyous nature about the 

 Never-Never bird. His notes — that is, the wild caught bird- — 

 are powerful and mellow, but, to my thinking, melancholy. As 

 a mimic he is gi"eat, but his talking powers are somewhat over- 

 rated ; many words are very clearly enunciated, but the vocabulary 

 is strictly limited, and never, never will he learn to whistle the 

 last notes of a tune. The female of this species is not so accom- 

 plished as the male, though equally interesting and docile. She 

 is smaller, the white and black of the plumage is less glossy than 

 that of the male bird, and her beak is feebler. One female that 

 I possessed was highly intelligent ; you had only to show her a 

 mouse trap and she would tell you what ought to be in it. An 

 empty cotton reel made her very happy, and she would lie on her 

 back holding the reel in her claws and play for hours like a kitten. 

 . . . I have, at the present time, a remarkably fine Crow, 

 just over four years of age, who is known in the family circle as 

 ' Poor Peter.' He came to me as a nestling, in the dingy grey 

 and muddy black dress worn by the infant Magpie. He was so 

 extremely youthful that he could not eat correctly : as to water, 

 apparently he had never heard or seen it, for he swallowed it in 

 drops out of a teaspoon in fear and wonder. Even now he is 

 strangely abstemious, and uses water for bathing only (really its 

 proper purpose) ! Perches he had no use for, preferring to roost 

 on the cage bottom — a fad he still indulges in. Peter belongs to 

 the white-necked, black-backed variety, and is beautifully marked, 

 the black being very black and the white very snowy. His beak, 

 which was black at first, soon changed, and is now quite a fine 

 instrument, long and polished, greyish-blue, with a black tip. 

 Peter always answers to his name, and will run from any part of 

 the house or grounds, on being called, as obedient as a dog. He 

 is also a highly-trained bird. For instance, he can fetch and carry 

 a ball or piece of paper, deliver it up and wait for you to throw it. 

 Will ' shake hands ' at command, sit on one's lap and allow his 

 feathers to be stroked, &c. He has a really charming tempera- 

 ment, a trifle hasty sometimes ; but, as the cook said, a little present 

 will quickly bring him round." 



Habits of Cuckoos. — In an article in the July. 1915. issue of 

 the Avicultural Magazine, Mr. Hubert D. Astley deals with the 

 habits of the Cuckoo [Cucuhis canorus) in the breeding season. 

 He was awakened one morning by the notes of a Cuckoo, and 



