CHAPTER XLVI. 



seeing these birds for the first time would 

 feel inclined, as I was, to think they were perfect 

 little angels; and so they are, but not angels of light 

 by any means. On the contrary, I should say that if 

 birds ever did, they hailed from quite a different place 

 from the cherubim and seraphim, for they are perfect 

 demons, most wantonly and horribly cruel and ferocious. 



It was in this way: my friend Jamrach once received 

 a large consignment of them, of which I had the pick. 

 He declined to say if they were a pair, but they 

 proved to be so, for he had a kind of intuitive sense 

 that always led him, or nearly always, to select a male 

 and female. Well, I brought them away, and put 

 them out in the aviary, where they seemed to make 

 themselves perfectly at home at once. 



They were not at all shy, but, like all the Conures, 

 extremely noisy, which did not matter as far as my 

 own household was concerned, for we could not hear 

 them indoors, and my immediate neighbours at that 

 time were long-suffering people who did not complain 

 unnecessarily. 



Very well, matters went on pretty comfortably until 



