66 RUNAWAYS j 



green love-bird feeding on seeds of the 

 grass. Now lovebirds are often born in 

 captivity, and their wings are feeble. But 

 in this case the bird had the full power of 

 its wings, and when a boy tried to capture 

 it, it flew away with the speed and agility 

 of a mothflitsie, or jack-snipe. 



Even such a bird as the parrot can 

 support itself. There is a rookery in the 

 Lewisham Infirmary Gardens, and for 

 some years past a gray and red African 

 parrot has been flying about with rooks, 

 who seem to welcome its presence. 



In flight it resembles a pigeon and a hawk, 

 and its presence among them is all the more 

 mystifying, because the antipathy of rooks 

 to a hawk is well known; they mob one 

 and drive it away whenever seen. The 

 Lewisham parrot escaped before the war, 

 and survived many winters, for I saw it 

 feeding with them in the Recreation 

 Grounds during 1919. 



Its curved beak prevents it from digging 



