278 Sydney Porter—The Story of a Quaker Parrakeet


in the air, so back he came to the bird-room. He escaped once again,

but this time stayed in the orchard. We put a cage out containing

a hen St. Thomas’ Conure, whose mate had died. This brought our

little friend back, and with a new love he wandered no more and was

content to let the fence of the orchard be the boundary to his little

world. He fell in love with the little Conure. To protect her from the

vulgar prying gaze of the public he built her a bower ; he wove and

wove, day in and day out, a wall of twigs on every side of her cage.

His work was amazing. He wove with the skill of an accomplished

basket-maker. From morning to night he flew back and forwards from

the damson-trees from which he plucked the slender twigs, to the cage

containing his lady love. Alas, just as this labour of love was nearly

completed, a sinister black feline preyed upon his little mate ! After

this the orchard fence no longer became his boundary, he reconnoitred

the neighbourhood, and in time his shrill shrieks could be heard from

a great distance. The neighbours accepted him ; he visited them in

turn, and most of them fed him and petted him. Sometimes he ate

their fruit, yet no one seemed to mind ; but he always knew his home.

I still had the usual messages : “ Have you lost a bird, mister ? ” But

in time the messages became fewer, for everyone got to know him.


I had only to whistle and with a distant answering shriek he would

come with swift and graceful flight, quick as a flash of lightning. At

the beginning of the cold weather he found his way back into the bird-

room, where it was warm. He spent the autumn nights there, but he

was always off again as soon as the door was opened in the morning.

In the evening he would come up to the house and shriek and chatter

until someone came out and went down to the bed-room to let him in,

but just to make sure that they really knew the way he would fly down

with them, going from tree to tree chattering all the time until the

door was opened. But on the approach of winter he hardly went out

at all. If the day was cold and dull a few circles round the

orchard would suffice, but if the day was fine he would stay out for

several hours.


On the approach of spring his stays out became longer and longer,

and finally he ceased to roost in the bird-room altogether ; but he

never quite left us.



