BALD-PATE. 303 



descending from his perch all day, except to feed or 

 drink. The other Bald-pates walked about a good 

 deal with the Pea-doves, and were rather playful. 

 Any new object they would examine and lay hold 

 of. Their cage, a capacious packing-box, was lined 

 with paper ; somehow or other, a bit of it was torn 

 up ; the Bald-pates were continually pulling at this, 

 and were not content till they had stripped off a 

 large space. A hole in the gauze front had been 

 darned with thread ; they would take the loose ends 

 in their beaks and tug at them. Sometimes they 

 would seize a stick or twig, and drag it about the 

 cage. A White-belly, taken in a springe, and put 

 with them, would not eat the Indian corn, with which 

 they were fed, and was supplied with orange-pips : 

 the Bald-pate would run up to the White-belly when 

 feeding, and playfully endeavour to snatch the pips 

 from him as he picked them up ; when, however, 

 he succeeded in getting possession of one, he im- 

 mediately dropped it : it was only the fun he want- 

 ed. If I inserted my finger through the gauze, he 

 would seize it with his beak, and, as it were, chew 

 it, and tug at it in various directions, turning, and 

 sometimes quite inverting, his head. He would 

 always take a grain of corn from my hand, even if he 

 did not eat it. 



Towards the end of the year, all of my Bald-pates 

 used to coo frequently, and, what is strange, often 

 in the night. When wakeful from sickness, I have 

 heard it from the adjoining room at intervals, four 

 or five times during the night : especially on those 

 nights in January, when the furious norths blow 



