Further Notes on the Black-cheeked Lovebird. 151


the stick is their life, the very breath of their nostrils ; when they

wake up in the morning, their first thought is of sticks; when

they go to bed at night, they repose in the midst of sticks, and

doubtless dream of sticks. When they quarrel, it is either over a

stick or because they havn’t a stick to quarrel over. Tugs-of-war

occur every day, and many times a day, but they use not a rope

but a stick:—it is all stick! stick! stick!—they have sticks ou

the brain ! Mr. Astley objects to their name; they might truly

be called “ The Stick-carrying Lovebirds.”


Since their range has been extended to the garden proper,

they have deserted the birch brooms and gone in for twigs and

branclilets cut from the living tree ; all the same, when spread

over the ground on the feed, should one come upon a dead stick,

it is immediately seized and hurriedly carried off to its

destination.


P'or a time, there were leaves on the twigs, but the twigs,

with the leaves, were carried off as cut; to what extent they

approved of the leaves, which withered so soon, I cannot say.

After the fall of the deciduous leaves, they attacked a holly, so

the leaves would seem to have had some attraction for them.

The faded leaves, in some cases I particularly noticed, were

arranged so as to add to the general air of neglect that these

birds affect, when circumstances permit, around and about their

nest*.


Most of the trees in my garden at present are bushy limes ;

and by the middle of January every one had in a way the appear¬

ance of a Christmas Tree—>a tree with a something attached to

the end of each of its multitudinous branclilets. Several inches,

occasionally more than a foot, had disappeared from the end of

every branchlet, the terminal portion having been gnawed off,

leaving a ragged and untidy tip which produced the effect re¬

ferred to.


When a bird has secured its prize, it flies with eager haste



* When shut off from the garden and leaves are not to be had, these birds frequently

carry millet stalks to their nest, and often fix a spray hanging out of the aperture of a log

or receptacle that has but one way of entrance and which cannot be stopped up, especially

if the hole be a little large or too much exposed.


This is manifestly not accidental ; and it occurs to me that they probably make use

of the sprays as the best substitutes obtainable for well-leafed branclilets—R. P.



