58 COKVIW.K. 



riosity is beyond bounds, never failing to examine anything 

 new to him : if the gardener is pruning, he examines the 

 nail-box, carries off the nails, and scatters the shreds about. 

 Should a ladder be left against the wall, he instantly mounts, 

 and goes all round the top of the wall ; and, if hungry, de- 

 scends at a convenient place, and immediately travels to the 

 kitchen window, Avhere he makes an incessant knocking with 

 his bill till he is fed or let in ; if allowed to enter, his first 

 endeavour is to get up stairs ; and if not interrupted, goes as 

 high as he can, and gets into any room in the attic story ; 

 but his intention is to get upon the top of the house. He is 

 excessively fond of being caressed, and would stand quietly 

 by the hour to be smoothed ; but resents an affront with 

 violence and effect, by both bill and claws, and will hold so 

 fast by the latter, that he is with difficulty disengaged. Is 

 extremely attached to one lady, upon the back of whose 

 chair he will sit for hours ; and is particularly fond of making 

 one in a party at breakfast, or in a summer's evening at the 

 tea-table in the shrubbery. His natural food is evidently 

 the smallest insects, even the minute species he picks out of 

 the crevices of the walls, and searches for them in summer 

 with great diligence. The common grasshopper is a great 

 dainty, and the fern-chaffer is another favourite morsel ; 

 these are swallowed whole ; but if the great chaffer be given 

 to him, he places it under one foot, pulls it to pieces, and 

 eats it by piecemeal. Worms are wholly rejected ; but 

 flesh, raw or dressed, and bread, he eats greedily, and some- 

 times barley with the pheasants, and other granivorous birds 

 occasionally turned into the gardens, and never refuses hemp- 

 seed. He seldom attempts to hide the remainder of a meal. 

 With a very considerable share of attachment, he is natu- 

 rally pugnacious, and the hand that the moment before had 

 tendered him food and caresses, will repent an attempt to 

 take him up. To children he has an utter aversion, and will 



