126 
WEST AFRICAN LOVE-BIRD. 
“They are so much attached to each other that they must always 
be had in pairs, and if one dies, the other rarely survives it.” The 
fact being, that the fever, or consumption, contracted on the voyage, 
that shortens the days of one, has usually been communicated to the 
other — et Mnc illce lachrymce. 
“Some people think”, continues the ancient Bechstein, as the Grer- 
mans affectionately term the father of bird-lore in their country, no 
less than in our own, “that a mirror hung in the cage, in which the 
survivor may imagine that it still sees its lost companion, will console 
it. The male remains affectionately near the female, foods her, and 
gives her the most tender caresses; she, in her turn, shows the greatest 
uneasiness if she be separated from him for an instant.” 
Just so: the fact being that half the time the supposed ^pairs’ are 
two males, or two females, as the case may be, when, especially if the 
former, they will feed and caress each other with as much assiduity, 
and apparent fondness, as if they were really a married couple. 
‘’'The name of Unzertrennliche, or ‘Inseparables’'’^ writes Dr. Russ, 
“is not correct, for a single individual will live for a number of years.” 
No, the romantic notion of their conjugal devotion must be given 
up, nor is the fable of their affectionate disposition any longer tenable : 
we have found them capable of fighting fiercely, not only with other 
birds, but among themselves, as a correspondent also testifies. 
“Apropos of Love-birds”, writes this gentleman, “I can only remark 
that I have a Red-faced one to which it would puzzle you to apply the 
epithet ‘amiable’, for a more surly, ill-tempered little glutton never 
existed. She quarrels with her husband, whom she drives about, com- 
pels to feed her with partly digested food from his craw, and then 
thrashes if he does not sit close enough to her, or if he dares to move 
before she is ready. In fact a more hen-pecked wretch never lived, 
and yet he seems to like it, and to be specially proud of his beautiful 
but utterly unamiable wife.” 
Some of these birds, nevertheless, are quiet and amiable enough, 
but their general character appears to be the rovei’se of good-natured: 
in a large aviary, where they have abundance of space to disport 
themselves, and more occupation, they are seen to the best advantage. 
Notwithstanding some insinuations to the contrary, it is certain these 
birds have not as yet been bred in Europe: but in justice to a person, 
who professes to have bred them, we must say that there is a kiudi’ed 
species, called the Rosy or Peach-faced Love-bird, to which we shall 
refer in a subsequent chapter, that breeds freely in captivity, and it is 
possible, we may say probable, that the person in question confounded 
it with the species under consideration : we will go a step further and 
