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and normal instindt; and in this I think we may find an answer

to a question I have often seen asked but never answered : Why

do these birds, of all the birds in the world, carry the material to

their nesting-places tucked away under their coat tails as it were,

instead of in their beaks like the rest of the feathered creation ?

Many and many a time, as I watched these mouse-like creatures

nesting, did I answer this question to my own satisfaction. My

birds could not fly straight to the aperture of their nesting

places as a Tit or a Starling usually can, but had to fly on to the

side of the building and then climb up a few inches, lift them¬

selves up into the aperture by means of their beaks, and then

creep in like mice. As everyone knows, a Parrot, when

climbing, uses its beak as a third hand ; and I could see that if

these birds had not any other means of carrying the stuff than

in their beaks, their task would never have been accomplished ;

it is doubtful even if they could have carried anything into the

hole at all. As it was, however, having their mouths free, they

could carry their loads home easily, and I may say safely, for

when there was plenty of green bark available they rarely

dropped a piece ; it is the Tove-bird in captivitj'' that drops its

unnatural collections about the place, not the free bird. The

female alone sat on the eggs; but whenever she came off the

male duly received and waited upon her, and escorted her back

to the doorway on her return, in the most gallant manner. He

always slept near her at night, but whether actually in the nest

or not*I do not know.


The female seemed to lay from five to seven eggs at a

time, and many were laid, but not an egg was ever hatched, and

I cannot say that any were fertilized ; the mate was unquestion¬

ably a male, albeit a miserable, feather-eating creature. On the

flat wood, in a large hole, the nests took a very considerable

time to make ; and owing to the abruptness with which the birds

were transferred from one place to another (for others had to

be considered before them), and the long delay which occurred

in finding a nesting-place, many eggs were laid before a nest was

formed, and, being on the flat, rolled about and came to nought,

so that at first the birds had not a fair chance ; but this will not

account for the clear eggs laid at a later period. The number of

eggs laid and wasted during the first few months may well have

caused weakness—or else the male was useless.


The male eventually died very suddenly while the female

was laying. At the time I supposed that he had been killed by

another bird, for he had received a suspicious-looking blow on

the forehead, which I judged had been inflicted before death ;



