OUR PETS. 151 



but next day it was found on the window-sill, and the 

 articles on the table were all out of their places, and 

 yet no one had been in the room. The mystery was ex- 

 plained in a day or two, when, coming home from a 

 walk, I went upstairs and found a jackdaw on the table 

 pulling with all his might at a large brush, which he had 

 dragged nearly to the window, when my entrance disturbed 

 him, and he flew off, and I heard afterwards that he 

 was a notorious character in the place, though his young 

 master declared this was the first time he had ever been 

 convicted of entering a house with intent to steal. The 

 worst of having any of this tribe domesticated in the gar- 

 den is, their tendency to seek out nests and eat the eggs : 

 the jackdaw is not so bad in this way as the magpie ; 

 nevertheless, w^e gave up keeping these birds from tlieir 

 inveterate tendency to destroy the nests of the blackbird 

 and thrush. Still somehow or other, Jacky contrived to 

 look innocent on these occasions, and we were always 

 willing to lay the blame on the wild magpies, and let our 

 saucy favourite escape. 



The tendency, or faculty, of becoming personally attached 

 to one individual is possessed largely by the parrot tribe, 

 from the large snowy cockatoo down to the brilliant little 

 paroquet. The former bird, from its gentleness and sagacity, 

 is very attractive — much more so than the macaAV, which, 

 to my mind, is both ugly and disagreeable, Ms noisy 

 screams for notice are so obtrusive, very different from 

 the quiet coaxing manners of the cockatoo. Not but what 

 he can make noise enough, too, when he likes : one that 



