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absolutely helpless. All that I could do for the poor little thing

was to crush out the last remnants of its hapless life. The

Cassique, in endeavouring to pierce the skull and get at the

brain, had gouged away every atom of skin and flesh from the

entire head and face to half way down the neck.


Within forty-eight hours the Black Cassique was an

inmate of the Western Aviaries of the London Zoological

Society.


When offering him to the Society, I had warned them that

he was a dangerous bird ; and when the attendant came for him

I spoke on this point. But the attendant was light-hearted :

they were going to place him with (I think) the Jay-Thrushes,

who would know what to do with him should he venture to

meddle with them.


On August 10th (1898) I asked the keeper how the Cassique

was getting on. His tone was not very jubilant. He had tried

the Cassique with this bird and with that, and with a like result—

the Cassique went for them all. However, he (the keeper) was

happy now ; he had placed him, as a last resource, with the

Laughing Jackasses (Dacelo gigasj, and he wouldn’t interfere

with them. I fear I forgot the Cassique for a while, but this last

June, being at the Western Aviaries, I again inquired after him.

With an ominous shake of the head, the keeper had to confess

that at last he had taken to go for the Jackasses, and he had been

obliged to shut him up by himself.


On September 6th, I found the Cassique loose again, and

this time in company with Mr. Russell Humph^’s bird. Both

were on the ground, the latter apparently on its last legs ; the

former spiritless, woe-begone, and utterly crestfallen, and quite

unlike his old self—why, I did not stop to inquire, owing to an

approaching thunder-storm.


O11 October 27th, I was told that Mr. Humphry’s bird was

dead, but that Mephistopheles was all right. He had had his

wings cut , however, for, as the keeper said, with great emphasis,

“ he was a little too much ! ! ! ”


It will be seen from the foregoing story, I think, that it is

not safe to judge of the character of a species from the behaviour

of a single specimen, and that a non-rapacious bird may be a

very dangerous one.


So little seems to be known of the Black Cassique that a

few details may well be placed on record in the Avicultural

Magazine.



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