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“ Agrippa.”



“AGRIPPA.”


By Reginald P. Waud.


It is with great pleasure, but with some diffidence, that, in

response to the request of the Editor of the Avicultural Magazine ,

I am writing a short account of “Agrippa,” my long-legged bird

(a white Stork) named after “Tall Agrippa,” out of Shockhead Peter,

a book which gave me great pleasure in my childhood’s days.


Agrippa is a friend of five years standing. I bought him,

chiefly, I think, in order to rescue him from the tiny pen in which

he was being kept in a horribly dirty condition in a bird-shop in the

East end of London, for I felt that he would be happier in my

garden, where he stalks at will, and can, if so disposed, bathe in a

little pond. He has a house to go to at night, to avoid the danger

of the fox or very bad weather, and he quite realises that this house

is his sanctuary, for every evening the door is opened and he retires

and there remains undisturbed until the morning, when I go to let

him out.


On his arrival he was very timid and nervous, but he soon

became quite tame, and now, when one enters the garden and calls

“Agrippa,” he comes up to take out of one’s hand any little dainty

he can be offered, in the way of a piece of raw meat, fish, dead mouse,

bird, or even rat, which are swallowed whole without the least

inconvenience as far as can be gathered from his demeanour.


Whenever he sees one digging in the garden, it is interesting

and amusing to watch him walk up to the place and stand over it,

eyeing every spadefull of soil turned over in the hopes that a worm

may appear, at which he immediately grabs.


On several occasions he has walked into the house with me,

but is a little diffident, apparently being alarmed of meeting one of

the dogs or a stranger, whom he really never quite trusts.


The bird hardly ever attempts to fly, and the only time I

ever see him exercise his wings is in the morning when first let out,

possibly that is because I keep a few of the feathers cut, usually

cutting them in the autumn when the old ones have come out.


All the time I have had him, he has never done the least

harm in the garden, I should rather say done good, for he devours all

wire-worms, caterpillars, etc. he can see, with the greatest joy. His



