i ;6 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



themselves and digest their dinner, for at first we could hear 

 them shaking themselves vigorously, and then all was still. 



I have often wished since that I had left them there, 

 but they appeared to be so very affectionate together 

 and so ready to adapt themselves to circumstances, 

 that I thought if I were to put them into a bird-room 

 I had at the top of the house, perhaps they would 

 settle down and breed as some Blue-winged Love- 

 birds and several other species of Parrakeets had 

 done. But no, they did not thrive in the bird-room at 

 all; the window was not a large one, and possibly they 

 had not enough light at any rate they moped and 

 did not get on at all. 



As the weather was very fine just then, and I had 

 a nice aviary in the garden, well planted with shrubs 

 and turfed, I decided to transfer the Bourkes thither 

 and see how they would get on. 



I caught them without any difficulty, carried them 

 downstairs in a small cage, and turned them out, as 

 I had decided, into the garden aviary, where the gum- 

 tree seemed to possess a great attraction for them, 

 and, for a time, all went on very well. 



Suddenly, however, a fearful and wonderful thing 

 happened and that, too, so unaccountably, that to this 

 hour I have no idea of the cause of it : one day when 

 I went to look at the birds, I found that the poor 

 cock Bourke had lost the whole of his bill 1 both upper 

 and lower mandibles had fallen offl 



