BLUEY ' 89 



of insects. Flies, grasshoppers, beetles, and small 

 moths seemed to be most in demand. Flies he 

 would catch with wonderful dexterity. They were 

 swallowed instantly, often before being killed. 

 Grasshoppers we caught and let loose in the 

 enclosure, and it was extremely interesting to 

 watch the systematic way in which he went about 

 the work of eating them. If several were let loose 

 at once, he would instantly pounce down on them, 

 and deliberately kill one after another by ham- 

 mering them with his beak. When quite satisfied 

 that they were all hors de combat, he would shake 

 off the legs of each one in turn and swallow the 

 bodies, each at a gulp. Finally he would gather 

 up and eat all the legs ; not one would escape his 

 keen eye. The number of grasshoppers he could 

 devour at a meal was out of all proportion to 

 his size. I have known no less than eight to 

 disappear down that beautiful throat within a few 

 minutes. 



His method of disposing of a large number of 

 hopping insects shows a great amount of reasoning 

 power (though birds are not supposed to reason). 

 He knew full well that were they not all killed in 

 the shortest possible time some would surely escape. 

 Curiously enough this was not the result of long 

 experience, for when he was but a few weeks old we 

 gave him several grasshoppers, and when he saw their 

 powers of jumping, he then and there made up his 

 mind they would get away if not immediately killed ; 

 and he promptly proceeded to kill. 



Two years after Bluey's arrival we moved to 

 a house that we had built near a delightful 



