78 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



audible in the evening than at any other hour, but 

 only when the performer was quite hidden from view 

 behind a cloth that hung over one half of the cage in 

 order to conceal the by no means attractive looking 

 creature inside. 



At last the cook rebelled ; someone had called to 

 visit her, it appeared, and having noticed the Bicudo, 

 had taken exce ^tion to its nude condition, and the 

 cage had to be taken away and placed somewhere else : 

 if so, where more appropriately than in my study? 

 True that apartment was not nearly as warm as the 

 kitchen, and the bird might take cold, perhaps die, in 

 it. Well, not much matter if it did ; it was by no means 

 "a thing of beauty ", and its presence could be well 

 dispensed with in the establishment. 



But the Bicudo soon showed that it had no intention 

 of dying, for on going to feed it one morning I thought 

 its head and neck looked a little darker than usual 

 (for it had a very white skin), and on closer inspection 

 I discovered that the bird's feathers were, actually, just 

 beginning to grow! 



Wonderful 1 In about three weeks more it was fully 

 clothed and able to fly about the cage quite strongly., 

 Its song then became more frequent and loud er, but 

 to my ear, presented no extraordinary merit, and 

 certainly fell short of what I had been led to expect- 

 but I may have been looking for too much. 



It had, evidently, been kept too warm, and that was 



