on taming Parrots.



247



rich and clear in colour, but he has one toe missing. He used to

live in the house and was soon very tame. His delight was to sit

on my shoulder whilst I wrote my letters and amuse himself by

abstracting my hairpins. I used to hear them dropping behind

me one by one as I wrote. “ Hollo ” had also a naughty habit of

biting my linen collar, a proceeding that gave him much interest;

he was very fond of giving me little friendly rubs and pecks in the

neck, or biting my ear very gently. He is a bird that continually

talks to himself with a mixture of curious little noises and words.


Every night “ Rollo’s ” cage was carried up and put on a

stool on the staircase landing, so as to allow the maid to open

the room windows well in the morning. If you do not take this

precaution with a parrot it will probably take cold and die, for the

maid may never think of the bird getting chilled, and the early

morning air is so cold in a room.


My little fox-terrier had always been jealous of “ Rollo,” and

one day an accident happened. His cage got upset and the bird

was frightened. Soon after this a little blister appeared on bne eye,

and the sight on that side entirely went, t'hough the eye itself looks

almost normal. But the worst of it was the bird’s whole character

began to change. I had put him loose in one of the aviaries and

he took to flying at my face. I am not generally frightened of

birds but I began to get nervous, and almost wished the bird had

died, for he seemed so fierce and unhappy, and I thought his brain

was affected. We caught him and put him back in his cage, for

he was really unsafe, and I attended to him nearly always myself,,

for whenever anyone came near he would strike out with his beak.

After a long time “ Rollo ” quieted down and I ventured to let

him loose again, and gradually trusted him on my hand. I had

to go very slowly, for my own sake as well as the bird’s, and for

long I never ventured to pet him. But I think his reformation is

now lasting and complete, and the real love he had for me has

returned. The other day on offering him a tit-bit he distinctly

showed me it was not that he wanted but just to come on my

hand to be talked to and petted. He is just a little nervous, if

stroked on his blind side, but in no way fierce, and what is very

curious he seems to have entirely forgotten how to fly, though his



