The Marquess of Tavistock—A Study in Feminine Psychology 108


A STUDY IN FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY


By The Marquess oe Tavistock


Among the older members of my collection is a ben Barnard’s

Parrakeet. How long I have bad ber I do not clearly remember, but

it cannot be far short of twenty years. Although still hale and hearty,

not to say exuberant in spirits, she has done no good as a breeder.

At times I have wondered if she were not sterile, so complete has been

her indifference to nest-boxes of every sort and pattern ; but I believe,

after all, her trouble has been mental rather than physical. Home

duties do not appeal to her, and the husbands I supplied have left

her cold. Barnards are very temperamental birds. Indeed, I have

known a higher percentage of cranks among Barnards than among

men, which is more than I can say of any other living creature !


Last autumn, having grown weary of the old lady’s persistent

refusal to lay a single egg, I decided to let her take her chance as a liberty

bird. She would enjoy herself and if she strayed she would be no great

loss. I expected her to take little or no interest in the cock she had

lived with for the past four years, and I thought she would wander

about a good deal. In this I was wrong. For some time she never

left the cock’s aviary and insisted on roosting on the open wire of the

flight, in spite of every effort I made to oblige her to seek more safe

and comfortable quarters for the night.


In a little while she began to feel more at home. She discovered

another pair of Barnards a few aviaries away. This was great

fun. Not since she left her home-land nearly a quarter of a

century ago had she had the chance of a real good fight and

hen Barnards love fighting almost as much as the sterner sex.

By the end of a really enjoyable day she had bitten the cock’s

foot and got the upper hand of the hen in spite of a double lot of

intervening wire netting. A little later she had an equally pleasing

row with the Yellow-rumps, and bit the hen’s toe. To do her justice,

however, she was not a bully. Having drawn blood and, in her opinion,

won on points, she no longer annoyed her adversaries, nor did she attack

the Kings, Crimson-wings and Barrabands at liberty—inoffensive

creatures unworthy of the prowess of a true sportswoman. She never



