Birds. 7615 



lien, who was often to be seen cautiously examining llie aperture at top, venturing a 

 little way iit, and coming back as if frigbiened, then fuitber and further by slow degrees, 

 till at last she was heard most busily engaged in the box below. This was furnished 

 wiih a bed of sawdust, to serve the purpose of the rotten wood and chips, which I had 

 understood formed a resting-place for the eggs and young in a state of nature. Here, 

 however, was displayed the difference between reason and instinct, for, instead of 

 making use of what was provided, nothing would satisfy the bird but going through 

 the process of biting, tearing and scratching the wood, as much as if it had been ever 

 so necessary in some tree she had found for herself. At length, by dint of her efforts, 

 she tore a hole through the bottom of the box, letting all the sawdust run out. To 

 remedy this a stout piece of leather was nailed on, and the sawdust replaced. After 

 several weeks' frequent running up and down, sometimes remaining so long below that 

 I looked (in vain) for some result, I one day, on raising the lid, was gratified with the 

 sight of a little white egg, about the size of a canary's, but rounder. The hen began 

 in)mediately to sit. In three days there was another egg, and so on until five were 

 laid. She sat for three weeks, the cock not sharing the labour with her, but industri- 

 ously feeding her all the while, either in the box or when she came out on the perch. 

 I do not think she ever once during the time went to the seed-glass or the fountain. 

 She frequently, however, left the eggs for a minute or two, running fast backwards and 

 forwards on the perch, as if to get all the exercise possible in so short a space, and then 

 dived rapidly down the lube to her charge. Exactly at the end of the three weeks, a 

 faint piping noise was heard from within the box, and much delighted were all 

 who heard it to find a little, struggling, unclad bird, the reward of so much care and 

 industry. Then came expectations of rearing a brood, teaching them to talk by early 

 training, giving some to one's friends, and so on. But, alas ! for only two days was 

 the infantile parrot note to be heard ; it grew less frequent by degrees, and then it 

 ceased, the poor little bird was dead — a great disappointment. The mother, all the 

 while it lived, was making a strange noise and bustle ; and whether or not from the 

 failure of that instinct she would have possessed if at liberty, it really seemed as if she 

 did not know how to treat her offspring. Had she intended to kill it, a single stroke of 

 her powerful beak would have been sufficient. The proper food was supplied, the 

 usual canary and millet seed, with abundance of groundsel, which at this time the 

 parents eagerly devoured, though when not so engaged they would take no green food, 

 except a bunch of seedy or flowering grass, always their greatest luxury. The remain- 

 ing eggs were not hatched, though all but one contained young birds in different 

 stages of growth. After this six eggs were laid and sat upon, and one hatched in rather 

 less time than before ; the young parrot lived only one day, and three others shared its 

 fate. The bird continued laying at times, but did not again sit regularly, and at last 

 had a strange fancy for eating her own eggs. This pair lived after I had ihetn, I 

 think seven or eight years, when the cock died, apparently from old age, and the heu 

 soon afterwards of asthma. I have since had another pair, the female of which was 

 evidently very old when they came into my possession ; the pretty yellow head had 

 become spotted with green, and the bill and claws extremely long ; after a short time 

 the mandibles grew so much as to cross each other, just in the manner of the crossbill. 

 It appeared to me that she was then unable to feed herself, or at least to shell the 

 the canary seed. The cock, however, fed her frequently while she lived, but in two or 

 three months, becoming quite infirm and decrepid, she died. Her faithful companion 

 still survives, and must have been a great deal the younger bird. He is very much 



