Virginian Nightingales 107 



That is, he flourished for some years, and was a 

 most charming bird companion. 



We reared him as a nestling to a very large extent 

 upon grapes ; skinning them first, extracting the pips, 

 and cutting each one into three or four pieces, which 

 "Joey" sucked down with avidity. 



In his early youth he was rather ugly, it must be 

 owned ; but, like the ugly duckling, he made up for it 

 afterwards when in his second moult he put on most 

 of his scarlet coat. 



An extraordinarily tame bird was poor "Jo." 



Whenever I entered the room, after an absence of 

 an hour or two, he used to hop up and down in his cage, 

 depressing his crest and quivering his wings with evident 

 delight ; and when the door was opened, the bird began 

 to sing ! 



He would flit on to my shoulder, erect his crest, 

 and sidling up, would simply shout into my ear, " Jug- 

 jug-jug-weet-weet-weet-weet-r-r-r-r." 



Though always a cage bird, yet he kept the brilliancy 

 of his plumage well, owing probably to the fact that he 

 had plenty of fruit and mealworms, as well as flights 

 about the room. 



He would let me walk with him into the garden, 

 sitting on my shoulder all the time. 



"Jo" was a favourite with every one who knew him. 

 His body was laid to rest in a tin box lined with green 

 moss, in a bank where every spring great bunches of 

 daffodils grow — nice, old-fashioned, yellow "daffadown 

 dillies." 



It was quite fifteen years afterwards, in 1897, tnat 



