A Retrospect. 
145 
In the meanwhile my wife had not been idle and a lovely- 
pair of Leadbeater's Cockatoos and an odd White Cockatoo 
were added to the list; and last, btit not least, a Wallaby cam-, 
too. 
1 never see a Wallaby or Kans^aroo without thinking of 
the story of the old lady, who seeing a picture of a Wallaby in 
a book, read the title underneath. ' Wallaby, a native of Aus- 
tralia." " Oh dear," said she, " and just to think my daughter 
went out there and married one of those." 
This made " some " collection, and I caged the majority 
in petrol boxes with sinall wire over the front. In this wire was 
a hole, and half a stocking was sewn round this, and throi',;h the 
stocking all food dishes had to be put. The idea was exi client 
as there was no door for the birds to get otit of when I put in 
the food: when not required, the stocking was knotted. This 
only failed once, and that was when about fifteen Bi "henos' 
went to sleep in the stocking and a careless opening 
of it in the morning enabled me to see about twelve at full 
liberty. 
I had always heard that if a small bird once got over the 
side it could not get back; this is not t.o, they can and did 
several times; one perched on the spar holding out the h g and 
finally flew in at a porthole. Finally they were all caught, 
thanks to a quick hand and previous practice in aviaries. 
We touched Tasmania, and l^re-tailed I-"inches were, ot 
course, searched for, one aviary pair and about 20 others secured 
and caged in a wicker cage. In four days all were dead and I 
quite agreed with someone who said that they were difficult to 
import. I then put a lot of Diamond .Sparrows in that cage, 
and, as they died quickly, I came to the conclusion that tlie cage 
was diseased, and threw it overboard. 
This was really bad luck, as nearly all tliO other Diamond 
Sparrows lived. 
All these cages were under the forecastle head and I 
looked after them myself, aided by my wife weather pevmittiny, 
