"GRIP" AND HIS UNTIMELY END. 287 



run, and making himself generally objectionable. He 

 was a crafty creature, too, and whenever he saw a 

 chance of pecking anyone, would ostentatiously show 

 himself at quite the other end of his run, and be 

 apparently quite oblivious of his opportunity. But his 

 wicked eye was upon his anticipated victim all the 

 while, and, the moment that he saw that his movements 

 were unwatched, he would sidle along the run, and 

 then drive his beak with all his force against the legs 

 of the unwary visitor. And to the trousered and 

 knickerbockered half of humanity such a dig invariably 

 meant a deep puncture, and a smarting wound which 

 did not heal for several days. 



" Grip " died of too much linen, a couple of towels 

 having been blown from a neighbouring clothes-line 

 upon his run, and promptly torn to rags and demolished 

 before they could be rescued. The bird did it out of 

 pure mischief, and only ate the torn strips because he 

 knew that he was doing wrong, and took a fiendish 

 delight in doing it. But his meal naturally disagreed 

 with him, and he died. ' And none of us mourned over 

 his grave. 



My father also once made a pet of a chameleon, 

 whose biography appears in " Petland." This creature 

 one which was curious and interesting in the last 

 degree, but to which even the most enthusiastic of 

 naturalists could scarcely feel any particular sensations 

 of attachment fell a victim at last to the jealousy of 

 " Pret," who, like most pet animals, could not bear to 

 see any attention lavished upon any living creature 



