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Mr. Wallace Craig,



that even if he wished a piece of food that was on the floor he

would try to reach it from the lower perch.


Peter was very fond of bathing, if the water given him was

not too cold. In winter I gave him the bath weekly, in summer

daily. When bathing daily he did not show the same eagerness as

when the bath had been withheld a few days. He always entered

the bath very cautiously, as if to make sure of his footing, his bath

being of the usual type with steep sides more than an inch high.

He first put in one foot, usually the left, and (unless very anxious

to bathe) repeated this several times before jumping in with both

feet. But as soon as his feet were both firmly on the bottom he lost

no more time, putting his head down and splashing vigorously.


Occasionally I let him fly out in the room. When it was

time to get him back into his cage I found this difficult to

accomplish, and I sometimes frightened and fatigued him in the

chase. Yet I found that, once back in his cage, he was as tame

as ever.


His staple food was Canary and rape seed, but he ate a great

variety of other things. He tried whatever I offered to him, tested

several bites, and generally swallowed at least a little of it.

He ate cracker (biscuit) readily. Fruit he enjoyed—apple, orange,

banana, strawberry, water melon, figs ; he cared less for date. In

eating a fig he took each little seed and apparently shelled it, eating

only the kernel. He ate celery, and probably also lettuce and other

green food. He was specially fond of spiders, and almost equally

fond of insects—house flies, bluebottles, May-flies {Ephemeridce) ; he

attacked even grasshoppers. Once when I held by one wing an

enormous “ Mourning Horse-fly ” {Tabanus atrcitus), Peter pecked

the big buzzing thing, hit its head off, and ate also the body, or at

least part of it. When he saw insects flying or crawling on the

ceiling or walls, he tried to get out of his cage, uttering, a little note,

pit, pit,” which called me to get the insect for him.


All Peter’s activities showed a good deal of adaptability and

intelligence and what in human life we call common sense. Even

within the first few days under my care he grew accustomed to his

new surroundings, began to grow tame, and learned to expect

the tit-bits (chiefly flies) which I brought him. For two years I



