294



The Marquis op Tavistock,



Having no companions of his own kind he was obliged to content

himself with the society of some Pennants, and when they and he

were on the wing together it was interesting to notice how greatly

they differed in their method of flight, the former moving in the long

undulating sweeps characteristic of their family, and the latter pro¬

pelling himself in a straight dove-like manner with sharp and regular

strokes. The speed of both appeared to be about equal.


But the Pennants were after all only a makeshift, and in

February,—when the good food and exercise which his free life gave

him were rapidly bringing him into breeding condition — the King’s

plaintive call-note, one short and one long whistle, sounded more

and more insistently until the day came when we missed him from

the feeding trays, and it became only too evident that he had gone

off on a hopeless quest in search of a mate.


Subsequent experience has taught me that I could not under

the circumstances have expected anything else. An unmated bird

of the parrot family, unless it be tame and attached to its owner,

will, in nine cases out of ten, stray away as soon as the breeding

impulse asserts itself, should it have the chance of doing so, and its

fate is usually speedy and untimely. On this occasion, however, I

was more fortunate than usual. About two days after the King’s

disappearance, we were out shooting at a place about four miles

from home, when my eye was attracted by a brilliant patch of

colour in a bare thorn edge, and there sure enough sat the missing

bird, looking somewhat disconsolate after forty-eight hours of semi¬

starvation—for Kings, like Cockatiels and Redrumps and unlike the

typical Platycerci, have little capacity for living in the country and

fending for themselves during the winter months. I at once sent

for a feeding'-tray (the feeding-trays for the birds at liberty are so

constructed as to be convertible at a moment’s notice into a kind of

box trap, by the pulling of a cord attached to one end) and in a very

few minutes after its arrival he was safely taken.


A few days previous to the King’s departure, I had with some

difficulty obtained two hens — one apparently a fairly good bird, the

other with something the matter with her wings which interfered

considerably with her powers of flight. In order to restrain him

from further wanderings, I shut up the King in an indoor aviary, in



