120 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



of his, and appears never to have got over the feeling 

 of enmity engendered in him against all the race by 

 one errant individual who belonged to the captain, and 

 disturbed the middy's repose by a series of terrific 

 "gur rahs" audible, we are told, a mile from the ship. 

 One of these birds I once had was a magnificent 

 creature, and certainly had a very powerful voice, but 

 fortunately he did not exercise it to its utmost extent 

 very often, though when he did call out every, one 

 had to run from the room. He was very tame and 

 loved to have his poll scratched; he would coo and 

 chuckle while undergoing the operation in a tone that 

 was perfectly ravishing. He did not speak much; only 

 a few words now and then, the principal of which were 

 " Pretty Cocky", which he would utter in a variety of 

 tones, sometimes, simply as the mere statement of a 

 fact, in a moderate key ; or he would whisper them in 

 a scarcely audible voice, as if confiding an important 

 secret to his interviewer, and now and then he would 

 trumpet them forth in stentorian tones so that the 

 whole house might hear, and tremble. His chief per- 

 formance, however, was to imitate a hen that had just 

 laid an egg, which he did to the life, but in a con- 

 siderably more powerful voice than " Biddy " herself 

 possessed. 



I did not keep him very long, for in a house of 

 ordinary dimensions, some of the inhabitants of which 

 were in the full possession of their sense of hearing, 



