on the Black-headed Sibia.



259



beak. For the next four days, he was able to sit up, but was too

weak to do more ; on the 21st he was really better, but still took

no food but milk, sucking it up from a dish in the manner

referred to. On the 22nd and 23rd he “nibbled” at a cut-up

grape, and on the 25th ate some tiny cockroaches, but up to

about the end of the month he practically lived upon milk. In

my opinion he could not have been saved if it had not been for

his ability to suck up fluids. He was not loosed into the aviary

until the 2nd January, but even then was still weak and tottering.

During the later days of his incarceration (in a small cage in the

dining-room) he would often utter a modification of his si-si

call, to which the female in the birdroom would immediately

respond with a loud clattering cry.


A marvellous feature in the economy of the Sibia is the

pursuit of the female by the male. It would be folly to suppose

that the like does not obtain in any other species, but I can say

that I am not myself acquainted with any other in which it is

even approached. The only parallel that I have myself ever

witnessed or heard of is to be found in our common English

Squirrel. The love pursuit of a pair of wild Squirrels, if once

beheld, can never be forgotten. Up one tree, from bottom to

top, and down another, through a plantation and back again,

surging backwards and forwards as if possessed by demons in¬

numerable, no words that I can pen can afford even the faintest

conception of this wondrous sight. In captivity, if I mistake

not, the Squirrel has never bred :—may it not be because in a

confined space it cannot perform its wonderful love-race? How

it may be with the Sibia in the limitless forests of the Himalayas,

I know not, but within the straitened borders of my aviary it is

almost an agonizing sight; for as one watches their mad reckless

flight, high and low, round and round, in and out, rushing and

smashing, dodging and doubling, through bushes and trees, in hole

and corner, one expects every moment that pursuer or pursued

will be dashed to atoms or fatally impaled. Finally, the female

usually darts into some box or barrel, followed by her mate.


The Sibia has many call and other notes, an unusual

variety I think, especially if temporarily separated, for my two

are close friends, and are practically always together. Mr. Frank



