32



Mr. R. Phillipps,



had climbed up one of the pillars and got out. Some time later,

when taking a peep, one youngster, probably the same precocious

urchin, three times climbed up this perpendicular stick, hand

over hand as it were, and climbed down again in like manner on

finding my face so near. Another point that struck me was the

large amount of space the nestlings seem to have inside the nest,

shewing that the supports must have been few in number—but

how firmly they must have been fixed !


The Rosy-faced Lovebird used to sit well on her eggs.


The Red-faced Lovebird sat like a stone: I never saw such

a creature. I remember well my first experience. The female

had entirely disappeared ; and I, supposing that she must be

dead, instituted a thorough search for the body. On reaching

into a sloping log which was hidden away and difficult of access

—and I must have made much noise and shaken the place well—

I found a chilly little morsel of feathers inside (the log was too

large and the nest of little account), with wings partially out¬

stretched over the eggs. I pulled her out, and she lay on the

palm of my open hand, with wings apparently rigidly outspread,

like a prepared specimen. I thought she was paralysed and

helpless—when suddenly she took wing and flew rapidly away.


But the Black-cheeked Lovebird is a very shy sitter ; she

seems to be unceasingly expectant of the advent of some deadly

forest foe; and this fear is seen reflected in the care with which

she endeavours to conceal her eggs and young. In early days,

when I crept into the birdroom, I used to notice that invariably

she would be sitting in and filling up the side aperture. After

this aperture had been closed, she was always to be found

crouching on the top of the log, ready to dart off at a moment’s

notice ; and even now as I write, in respect of her second nest,

although she has learnt to have full confidence in me and never

flies, the old instinct prevails, and she is invariably to be found

on the top of the log when I enter the room. I have had cases

in which the female, not satisfied with the nest, has in a like

manner kept watch over the safety of her eggs but never at¬

tempted to incubate them ; and I feared that this might be

another such a case ; but one day I did succeed in getting within

sight of the log so quietly that I was in time to see her appearing



