WOOD AND WASTE 87 



head is zigzagged from side to side, like 

 a snake about to strike. At length a dart 

 is made and the morsel snatched and eagerly 

 devoured. 



It is strange, also, to see at so early an 

 age the use made of the claw or ''foot," 

 the morsel being held tightly between the 

 "thumb" and other ''fingers." The arrival 

 of the three new chicks brought out quite 

 unexpected traits in Budget's character. 

 He was then about eleven weeks old, and 

 during his whole life had never ceased his 

 perpetual, plaintive call when wandering 

 about and feeding himself. His foster 

 mother was in her coop, and he had no 

 one to tell him the dangers of such a habit 

 to little Pukekos, and what a siunmons it 

 was to vermin. When the three new chicks 

 arrived, beyond touching their little heads 

 with his bill, and feeling them gently. 

 Budget at first evinced but little interest. 

 These chicks were at that time netted into 

 a very small run until they took to their 

 new mother, a staid old Buff Orpington. 



In a few days they were allowed full 

 freedom — the hen still penned in her coop 



