BOBBY. 177 



would lift the little fellow off his legs, take him up a 

 few feet into the air, and drop him suddenly. Then, 

 after waiting a few moments till his victim had re- 

 covered his composure, and was off his guard, he would 

 repeat the performance. The meerkat, a plucky, in- 

 dependent little character, resented the insult, and 

 scolded and chattered vehemently, showing all his small 

 teeth as he hung helplessly by the tail : but he was 

 powerless against Bobby, and had to submit to being 

 wliisked up unexpectedly as often as his tormentor, by 

 right of superior strength, chose to indulge his practical 

 joke. 



As Bobby grew older he lost his simple vegetarian 

 tastes, despised porridge, and began to pick up a dis- 

 honest living about the fowl-house. He would fly to 

 meet us in the morning, and perch on our shoulders 

 with an impudent assumption of innocence ; quite un- 

 conscious that the yellow stickiness of his bill told us 

 he had just been breakfasting off several eggs. Then 

 he took to eating the little chickens ; and here his 

 talent for mimicking the fowls stood him in good stead, 

 and no doubt gained him many a dinner ; his exact 

 imitation of the hen's call to her young ones attracting 

 victims within his reach. Many battles were fought 

 by the maternal hens in defence of their progeny; in 

 which Bobby always got the best of it, going off tri- 

 umphantly with his prize, to regale in safety on the 

 roof, or at the top of the windmill. Our poor little 

 broods ( f chickens, which had enemies enou£rh before in 

 the shape of hawks, wild cats, snakes, etc., diminished 



