CUCKOOS 69 



spend my nights, and how morning after morning 

 I was aroused by the hubbub of shouts that 

 issued from the trees. Getting up in order to drive 

 the birds off only served to wake one more 

 effectually, and at best put a stop to the din for a 

 few minutes, so that, until the trees were cut down, 

 each successive day was ushered in by a state of 

 nervous irritation during the whole of the time when 

 the fruit was maturing. 



The nature of their diet makes it very easy to 

 keep them in good health as cage-birds, but, as a rule, 

 they are very uninteresting pets. They are extremely 

 voracious and greedy ; so much so that they will feed 

 from the hand almost immediately after being caught, 

 but they are equally stupid, and, owing to the way 

 in which they smear their feathers during their eager 

 attacks on pulpy fruits, they are by no means so 

 ornamental as they ought to be, and as they are 

 whilst at liberty. Now and then an individual bird 

 may be met with who does show some signs of in- 

 telligence, and even of somewhat interested affection. 

 At a time when I had two very tame hen koils, the 

 man in charge of the aviary in which they were 

 confined managed to let one of them escape. She 

 flew off at once into the garden, which was a very 

 large and abundantly wooded one, and for some days 

 nothing more was seen of her. One morning, 

 however, whilst I was going down one of the paths, 

 she suddenly flew down from a neighbouring tree, 



