THE CEYLONESE HANGING PARROT. 167 



But all of these excellent recommendations were 

 inadmissible: there the birds were, and there they 

 must remain until I could, legitimately and without 

 prejudice to others or to the creatures themselves, get 

 rid of them. 



It was a pity, too, for they were very funny, and 

 so extremely lively, and the male had such a nice little 

 warbling song : but that Yankee at Eden who terrified 

 poor Martin Chuzzlewit lest he should miss his aim 

 was nothing to them, so I wrote a good friend of mine 

 who keeps and has kept all sorts and conditions of 

 birds, and asked him if he would like to have them ; and 

 anxiously awaited his reply. In due course of post it 

 came he would. 



"Wish him joyl" exclaimed the various members 

 of my household with wonderful heartiness and una- 

 nimity, and the Ceylonese Hanging Dwarf or Pigmy 

 Parrots were dispatched on their travels once more. 



My friend, as I have said, has kept almost every 

 kind of bird that can be named, except, perhaps, an 

 Ostrich and a Golden Eagle, or, until then a Hanging 

 Pigmy Parrot but even for him, good, easy-going 

 fellow that he is, they soon proved themselves to be 

 just a trifle too much, and he parted with them; to 

 whom I know not, nor has their subsequent fate trans- 

 pired. 



At one time I thought of presenting them to the 

 "Zoo", but having been rather untortunate as regards 



