BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
an occasional pinioned individual enjoying 
qualified liberty in a backyard. Their want 
of popularity is easily understood, since they 
lack the music of the canary and the mimicry 
of parrots. That they are, however, capable 
of appreciating kindness has been demon- 
strated by many anecdotes. The Rev. H. A. 
Macpherson used to tell a story of how a 
young gull, found with a broken wing by the 
children of some Milovaig crofters, was 
nursed back to health by them until it eventu- 
ally flew away. Not long after it had gone, 
one of the children was lost on the hillside, 
and the gull, flying overhead, recognised one 
of its old playmates and hovered so as to 
attract the attention of the child. Then, on 
being called, the bird settled and roosted on 
the ground beside him. An even more remark- 
able story is told of a gull taken from the 
nest, on the coast of county Cork, and brought 
up by hand until, in the following spring, it 
flew away in the company of some others of 
its kind that passed over the garden in which 
it had its liberty. The bird's owner reasonably 
concluded that he had seen the last of his 
protegee, and great was his astonishment 
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