" Joseph:* 
241 
liis cai-;e he seemed just as anxious to escape from lier society 
as he had formerly been to rejoin her. iMiiully 1 gave it up as 
a l)ad job and sen't tlie Mealy Rosella away, re])]acini^- her by a 
hen Stanley, who, from close continement and lack of i^reen 
food, had developed into a feather-plucker. and was the most 
wretched object ima.L;inable. Josei)h. however, seemed more 
attracted by her than he had been by the Mealy, and when she 
was introduced to him later he made himself very a.greeable, 
and started to feed her. Strange to say, however, when she 
began to fly about the cage, his old nervousness returned, and 
it was some days before he was entirely at his ease. I can only 
account for his curious behaviour by the suggestion that he 
must, some time, have been caged with a very sjiiteful bird, and 
that the bullying he received left such an impression on him 
that the attractions of female society could hardly overcome 
his inherent dread of another occupant of the same cage. 
People are often abominably careless about keeping" quarrelling 
birds together, and the cruelty thus inflicted is very great. 
Before 1 had had her many weeks the Stanley surprised me by 
showing signs of a desire to nest, scratching energetically on 
the floor of the cage. Accordingly I fixed a nest-box on the 
outside, making a hole in the wire for the birds to enter ; they 
took to the box at once, Joseph spending a lot of time sitting- 
at the entrance whistling and waggling his tail, while the 
Stanley rununaged and scratched inside- About this time 
Joseph began to resent what he suspected to be interference 
with his family affairs. If a hand was placed near his cage he 
would sidle up and attempt to inflict a bite, especially if he 
thought the owner was just turning- away. At such times he 
would often utter a querulous whining- noise, which clearly 
meant " For goodness' sake clear off and leave us in peace!" 
There was absolutely no aggressiveness about his attack — in 
fact, at the actual moment he lunged forward to bite, a slight 
squawk of fear would sometimes escape him; his whole manner 
reminded one of a person with difficulty screwing up his courage 
to perform a dangerous and unpleasant dutv, and was as 
different as i)ossible from the truculent and cheerful fury he 
displayed when a strange Parrakeet was shown to him; at such 
times his rage was so great that he would even attack his wife 
if she got in his way. 
