on Ce?itropus superciliosus in Captivity. 121


aviary he lias lost a good deal of his wonderful natural tameness,

though he will still come and take a mealworm from my fingers,

but it frightens him now to be handled and stroked as I could do

at first. He is very secretive and retiring in his habits, lurking

and hiding among the thick foliage of a small tree in the aviary,

though on a sunny day he loves to climb up to the highest branches

and sun himself, spreading out each wing to get as much heat as

possible ; if anyone conies he at once crawls down into the leaves

again, where he remains motionless, only occasionally flirting his

long green tail. I have only twice heard my bird call or whistle

any of his wonderfully melodious notes since he has been in cap¬

tivity ; the first time was 011 the journey home, at Marseilles

Railway Station at ten o’clock at night, when I was getting into

the “ Rapide” for Paris, the Centropus suddenly burst forth into

a crescendo-like scale of bubbling notes, greatly to the amaze¬

ment of the French porters, who had 110 notion that the large

brown paper covered parcel, which they had to carry so carefully,

contained anything alive ; his only note now is a low guttural

kind of hiss, which is frequently uttered if anyone goes into the

aviary, possibly from nervousness, but more likely I think,

as a mark of annoyance. My bird is very fond of water and likes

a large bath, especially on a bright sunny day he enjoys paddling

about in the shallow pan, not apparently searching for food, but

simply as an enjoyment; when he is engaged in this occupation

he holds his tail up quite high and is very careful to keep it

perfectly dry, occasionally he will put his head right down into

the water and if it is a very warm day, throws the water over his

back and wings; when he has finished his ablutions he walks

round and round the aviary with drooping wings and expanded

tail and presently finishes the drying by hopping up into a tree

until he can get the sun’s rays upon his feathers. He is very

inquisitive, and if anything new is put into the aviary he at once

hops down and examines it in the most comical way, something

like a Magpie does.


When he first arrived I put him into a large outdoor cage

in which were a pair of small Ground Doves ; all went well for a

week, when one morning my man told me that there must be a

mouse in the cage as one of the Doves had been killed and half



