146 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



the stranger, so as a last resource I carried it into 

 the house and thought to bring it up by hand. 



There was no difficulty as far as feeding it was 

 concerned, so I placed it among some cotton-wool in 

 a little basket near the fire, and there seemed every 

 likelihood of its doing well. Next day being Sunday, 

 I took the birdling into the kitchen for the cook to 

 look after while we went to church, and she, good 

 simple soul 1 to ensure its being kept warm, placed it 

 and its basket in the oven, with the result that when 

 we returned home we found that the poor little creature 

 was baked 1 



The Ring-necks did not go to nest again that year r 

 for soon after the sad catastrophe of the young ones, 

 which I attributed to inexperience on the mother's 

 part, they began to moult rapidly, but I hoped that 

 in the following summer they might try again and 

 possibly make up for their shortcomings by producing 

 and r aring another brood, or perhaps two. The cock 

 bird, who had been so tame, became as vicious as his 

 mate had been, and she, strange to say, grew much 

 more docile, but between them they persecuted the 

 other inhabitants of the aviary to such an extent that I 

 had to take them away and put the pair of Ringnecks 

 in a place by themselves, where they finished their 

 moult and looked handsomer and healthier than ever. 



Winter set in severely, but they did not seem to 

 mind the cold a bit, and frequently roosted in the 



