Birds. 2025 



no sooner did he catch sight of me, than he commenced half running half flying to- 

 wards me, making that remarkable trumpet-sound he was in the habit of doing when 

 pleased, and walked the remainder of the distance by my side. He knew all the ser- 

 vants and labourers, never molesting them, whilst every stranger, whether gentle or 

 simple, equestrian or pedestrian, he invariably attacked if he could, especially any 

 ragged person : he was rather the terror of our visitors, as he would frequently, like a 

 watch-dog, dispute the entrance with them : he knew every member of the family at 

 a considerable distance, whether on foot or on horseback, and would frequently leave 

 the water to come and meet us, or walk by our side talking all the time. He was lord 

 of his own domain, and especially jealous of any animal approaching its banks, gene- 

 rally taking the trouble to swim from the furthest end to drive them away : he was so 

 well known by cows and horses that they generally decamped on his approach. In 

 the spring of the year he required little or no feeding, finding sufficient sustenance on 

 the tadpoles and other water animals abundant at that season ; he would eat any kind 

 of grain, and was particularly fond of bread, which he would eat out of our hands : 

 he was as sociable as a dog and nearly as attached : whenever the entrance-gate was 

 left open he would make his way up to the house ; he always found out which room 

 we were sitting in, and would call under the windows and peep in, and would not be 

 satisfied without having something given to him ; he would then lie down under them, 

 seemingly satisfied if he could be near us. In the summer time, when the doors were 

 open, he would frequently walk into the house, and even round the breakfast-table. 

 Often when my mother was amusing herself at her flower-beds, he would see her, come 

 up from the water, wait at the gate to be let in, and then come up and lie down close 

 to her. Never so happy as when near us, he would sit under the windows or on the 

 steps for hours if allowed, and each year increased his attachment and sagacity. After 

 being with us upwards of six years, to our great distress — on coming down to break- 

 fast one morning — we discovered poor Dan standing upon the steps of the front door, 

 with his head and neck covered with blood, the skin under his lower mandible being 

 torn from the bone and hanging down, as was his tongue, from having nothing to 

 support it. The first thing we thought of was to sew the skin on again, in the hope 

 of its adhering to the bone, but neither this or other endeavours to effect a cure suc- 

 ceeded, and the poor bird was in danger of being starved to death, as he had not the 

 power of swallowing, even if he got the food into his mouth, having no use of his 

 tongue. We were very loath to sign his death-warrant, and yet could think of no 

 means of saving him, when one of the servants proposed the carpenter's making a 

 wooden bill for him : we acted on the suggestion, and had one made with holes drilled 

 in it, and corresponding ones through the horny substance of his mandible, and 

 fastened it on with wire : this contrivance answered admirably ; he was able to eat as 

 usual, and began to recover his good looks, but nothing would induce him, from the 

 time of his accident, to remain on the water at night ; he always came up to the 

 house towards evening to go to rest, and was most persevering in his endeavours to 

 obtain an entrance into his bed-place, and if he failed one way he would try another ; 

 occasionally he would call under our sitting-room windows to be let in : in the morn- 

 ing he quietly marched down to the water quite contentedly. What caused the acci- 

 dent we could never discover, and can only suppose it to have been done by a stoat or 

 polecat, as he had been seen more than once attacking the former, which were very 

 numerous. The wooden bill answered remarkably well for two or three months, when 

 the wire by which it was fastened became corroded, and it dropped off: it had unfor- 



