BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



an occasional pinioned individual enjoying 

 qualified liberty in a backyard. Their want 

 of popularity is easily understood, since they 

 lack the music of the canary and the mimicry 

 of parrots. That they are, however, capable 

 of appreciating kindness has been demon- 

 strated by many anecdotes. The Rev. H. A. 

 Macpherson used to tell a story of how a 

 young gull, found with a broken whig by the 

 children of some Milovaig crofters, was 

 nursed back to health by them until it eventu- 

 ally flew away. Not long after it had gone, 

 one of the children was lost on the hillside, 

 and the gull, flying overhead, recognised one 

 of its old playmates and hovered so as to 

 attract the attention of the child. Then, on 

 being called, the bird settled and roosted on 

 the ground beside him. An even more remark- 

 able story is told of a gull taken from the 

 nest, on the coast of county Cork, and brought 

 up by hand until, in the following spring, it 

 flew away hi the company of some others of 

 its kind that passed over the garden in which 

 it had its liberty. The bird's owner reasonably 

 concluded that he had seen the last of his 

 protegee, and great was his astonishment 

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