TABLE MANNERS 79 



down for a suit of feathers, he was promoted to a 

 large cage out in the garden, and his regular diet 

 was a little raw meat or a mutton bone tied to one 

 of his perches, but, by way of a treat, I would offer 

 him, whenever I could get it, a locust, or large grass- 

 hopper. His way of accepting this was unique and 

 pretty. He would look surprised, stare, curtsey 

 once or twice, stare again and then, suddenly, noise- 

 lessly and as lightly as a fairy, flit across the cage 

 and, without alighting, pluck the insect from my 

 fingers with both his feet and return to his perch. 

 Why he bowed to his food and to everybody and 

 everything that presented itself before him was a 

 riddle that I never solved. A materialistic friend 

 suggested that he was adjusting the focus of his 

 wonderful eyes, and the action was certainly like 

 that of an optician examining a lens ; but I feel 

 that there was something more ceremonial about it. 

 This punctiliousness cost him his dinner once. I 

 was curious to know what he would do with a 

 mouse, so, having caught one alive, I slipped it 

 quietly into his cage. He was more surprised than 

 ever before, raised himself erect, bowed to the earth 

 once, twice and three times, stared, bowed again 

 and so on until, to his evident astonishment and 

 chagrin, the mouse found an opening and was gone. 

 The lesson was not lost. A few days later I got 

 another mouse, to which he began to do obeisance 

 as before, but very soon and suddenly, though as 

 softly as falling snow, he plumped upon it with 

 14 



