A BUNDLE OF INIQUITY 65 



regarded me attentively with his bright little eye, and 

 satisfied himself that all was well, he advanced to the 

 toast and bore it off. But, alas, the way of transgressors 

 is hard ! A " lurking, villain crow," who had been 

 watching the theft from the verandah, pounced upon 

 the thief, and bore off his ill-gotten toast. The wrath 

 of the squirrel was a sight for the gods. His whole 

 frame quivered as he told that crow what he thought 

 of him. 



Sciurus palmarum is very fond of bread and milk, and 

 will, in order to obtain this, perform deeds of great 

 daring. I once kept a grackle, or hill-myna. This 

 bird, when not at large, used to dwell in a wicker cage. 

 In a corner of this cage a saucer of bread-and-milk 

 was sometimes placed. The squirrels soon learned to 

 climb up the leg of the table on which the cage stood, 

 insert their little paws between the bars, and abstract 

 the bread-and-milk, piece by piece. In order to 

 frustrate them, I placed the saucer in the middle of 

 the cage. Their reply to this was to gnaw through a 

 bar, and boldly enter the cage. They grew so audacious 

 that they used to walk into the cage while I was 

 present in the room ; but, of course, the least move- 

 ment on my part was the signal for them to dash away 

 into the verandah. On one occasion I was too quick 

 for a squirrel who was feeding inside the grackle 's cage. 

 I succeeded in placing my hand in front of the gnawed- 

 through bar before he could escape. He dashed about 

 the cage like a thing demented, and so alarmed the 

 myna that I had to let him out. In half an hour he 

 was again inside the cage ! 



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