Miscellaneous Notes from Brinsop Court.



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could not swallow. Before we could devise means to help him,

he disappeared.


Jack, my Sandhill Crane, and I go to the grove almost

every morning to hunt insects, He digs into the ground the length

of his hill and brings out fat grubs, which apparently he hears beneath

the surface. On one occasion he dug out a mole and killed it. We

have a large variety of spiders that live in holes in the ground ;

when Jack sees one of these holes he chuckles and makes a dive

for it. Our negroes are all very fond of Jack, and he has his

favourite among them. When this man is hoeing, Jack follows

him to get the insects he turns out, talking and chuckling all the

time. He has a great variety of calls, and when hungry grunts

or utters a fretting note ; when he is pleased he chuckles; and he

spreads his wings and hisses like a goose when a Buzzard, Osprey,

or Eagle flies by. We talk to him as we would to a dog, and he

seems to understand us. About once a week he goes flying and,

after circling around the place, lands in the grove and waits for

us ; or sometimes walks back when, if the sand is hot, he stands

in his bath-tub to cool his feet. Every evening before he goes

to bed he dances, and the more we applaud the more active he

becomes.


One of our friends had a pair of Egrets, He found the

two young in the nest; the mother bird, with six other bodies,

lay in a heap with wings and plumes taken. He raised the

birds and had them a long time. One sickened and died, the

other must have lived four years longer, when he was killed

by a Horned Owl.



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES FROM

BRINSOP COURT.


I had hoped for hybrids from my male orange-headed bull¬

finch, ( P. erythrocephalus ) and a female British bird. Last year they

had three nests, but all three eggs were clear. This year the hen

bullfinch has again had eggs, apparently with the same result. Yet

the two birds are devoted to one another.



