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Miss R. Alderson,



that, otherwise, she looked much as usual. I telephoned for the

veterinary and he came up quickly, prepared to stitch the injured

part, but a very brief examination showed him the case was hopeless,

the internal mischief was so great. There was nothing to be done

save to put her out of her pa in as mercifully and quickly as possible.

We never found out the cause of the accident, and can only think

the bird tripped over a flower stake. It was all so sudden. In less

than an hour all was over, and poor “ Paul ” our only Demoiselle.


We gave the dead body to a naturalist here and he made the

strange discovery that the dead bird was a cock, though much the

smaller and feminine looking of the two. “Paul” is a much finer

bird and walks with an erect gait. “ Virginie ” used to mince along

with her neck curved, but we noticed that she used to do far the

most of the dancing.


In the meantime we had got a second cock Crowned Crane.

He was in poor condition when he came, but looked healthy and

promised to make'a line bird. For lack of a better name we called

him “ Beder,” which in the native language means the full moon.


It was amusing to see how “ Lady ” expected from him the

same slavish worship which she had from poor “ Rex.” She would

march up the garden thinking the new arrival was following her,

and when she at last looked round and found he was taking no great

interest in her, she would stop in great perplexity. After a time she

gave it up, and became quite ready to give some of the admiration

instead of expecting it all for herself, and many were the kisses and

caresses the pair bestowed on each other, but always in a very dignified

fashion. Their manner of doing it was curious ; they would come

close together, their beaks almost touching, and gaze into each

other’s eyes as if transfixed, then would come gentle affectionate

dabs with the beak of one on the face of the other, generally ending

in the “ crown ” feathers being smoothed out. They used to make

a pretty picture, but they hated even a hand camera, so a photo¬

graph was almost an impossibility. But still in some ways “ Lady”

was decidedly the master. One day I was amused to watch the birds

taking their bath. The bath was specially made for them and is

large and shallow. “ Lady ” stepped in first, and after a moment or

two “Beder” followed, but this she would not allow. With quiet



