264 FEATHERED FRIENDS. 



from the cage, dashed furiously about, just as the 

 Wood Pigeons had done, or, I should rather say, a 

 great deal more wildly, and after banging their heads 

 against the wires until they were covered with blood, 

 fell exhausted on the grass, where they lay panting 

 for a few minutes, and then started off again on their 

 mad career. 



Not knowing what to do, or how to stop the silly 

 birds from injuring themselves, I turned away and left 

 them alone, hoping they would settle down when they 

 found that there was nobody looking at them, but 

 later on I found that they must have been carrying on 

 their foolish game all day, for their heads were in 

 almost as sad a plight as was that of the first of their 

 race I ever had when I released him from his travelling- 

 box: so I went into the aviary, net in hand, and hav- 

 ing caught the pair of silly Doves, transferred them 

 once more to their cage, where after an interval of a 

 week or so their heads began to look better and indi- 

 cations of a renewed crop of feathers were plainly to 

 be seen in place of those that had been rubbed or 

 knocked off against the wire roof of the aviary. 



What to do with the birds I scarcely knew ; I did 

 not want to keep them in the house, nor did I feel 

 inclined to try them in the grassed and planted aviary 

 any more, so after some deliberation I put them along 

 with the Wood Pigeons and the Parrakeets, where I 

 was glad to find that they behaved themselves a little 



