on the Archbishop Teenager.



i8r



The birds were apparently a pair, the larger and heavier

bird being the hen ; as it was altogether duller in colouring, the

blue of the head and neck not extending so far down the breast;

and, although Mr. Astley wrote “ They always seemed quite

friendly with each other” I found that the undoubted cock went

in fear of his life, and was afraid to leave the food-pan; whilst

the supposed hen, in like manner, after one or two brisk

encounters with its companion, in which both were more

frightened than hurt (though he certainly had the worst of it in

these brushes) could not summon up courage to leave the perch

to eat.


For about three days I was obliged to feed the latter by

squeezing banana through the wires above the perch : whilst,

for drinking purposes, I had to hang up a tin of water close to

it: still, as this could not be allowed to go on, I decided to move

the birds to a larger flight, so cleared out one measuring three

feet six inches in length, with a perch towards each end. In

this cage the birds were at first tolerably friendly; and, though

the cock still continued nervous when he and his companion

were feeding from the same saucer, and used at times to shrink

back and whimper in a truly ludicrous fashion, I hoped that all

was going on satisfactorily.


From the first the undoubted male occasionally had

sneezing fits, but mostly after washing, whereas the other bird

seemed only to suffer from ill-temper : but about the 21st of

January the latter became spiteful and flew at its companion

each time that he went down to feed ; so that presently I had to

adopt the same plan for providing him with food and water,

which I had previously adopted for his partner: the latter now

drooped its wings, puffed out its feathers, and daily grew worse.


On the morning of the 28th I dipped a piece of Madeira

cake in castor oil and held it to the wires ; the sick bird pecked

and swallowed some of this (I supposed it was only suffering

from some little stomach trouble); in the afternoon I found food

and saucer splashed all over with vivid red blood, apparently

thrown up from the bird’s lungs ; and, 011 the morning of the

29th, I found it dead under its perch,—just one month after it

had reached me : doubtless the cold and exposure to Irosty

weather had affected its lungs.



