67


still more that his ph5'sical condition, so unpleasantly deranged,

should gradually have improved till at the end of three years he

was quite cured.


Last summer he busied himself for da^^s over a fastening

of his cage door, with the result that he at last broke it, raised

the door with his head, and flew off. At some distance I saw a

grand bird with outspread tail fly over an oak tree. Every bird

in the menagerie screamed, and I wondered which of my foreign

Pheasants had escaped this time, till I found "Jerry's" tenantless

cage. At first he enjoyed his liberty much, but never went far.

From dawn the next day he conversed from tall fir trees ; the

day turned wet, and he amused himself in biting shoots off

walnut trees ; by the second morning he looked bored and took

much notice of all our proceedings. Then he gradually

descended a big copper beech. I held his cage up and he let

himself down to it, and was evidently delighted to be in it again.

Once more he got out, but within an hour flopped on to the cage

of another bird as it was being carried. He had found out that

liberty has its disadvantages, and now makes no serious attempts

to get out. I should have no fear whatever of turning him out

any day, save for the oak carving outside the house, or furniture

if he came in at a window ; released once in the bird-room he

quickly snapped off the pinnacle of a fine new cage.


I think the story of " Jerry " will show that an Illiger may

be a very fascinating and companionable pet.


Since the above lines were penned "Jerry's" portrait has

appeared in the pages of the Feathered World.



THE INDIAN SHAMA.



By the Rev. Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S.


(Illustrated by the Author).


A most charming cage-bird ! Bold, vivacious, easily kept

in good health, rich in colouring, though not gaudy, with a voice

of great melody and much power of mimicry, the Indian Shama

must necessarily rank amongst the most coveted of cage-birds.


In Tydekker's " Royal Natural History" it is described as

delicate, requiring care in the colder climate of Great Britain.

It is true that if a Shama be exposed to draughts and improperly

fed and kept, this ma}' be the case ; but I have not found it to be

so. M}' Shamas have lived well, and the one from which I have

taken my sketch is now in magnificent plumage, ready on the

coldest morning to plunge into his bath, in which he splashes

until he has thoroughly wetted ever}^ gloss}^ feather about him.



