0. St. A. S.—Alfred



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type of humour must have been rather Rabelaisian at times. He never

learned to speak one word of English, and his little brain must have

been so packed with other things that it could not absorb any more

knowledge.


Alfred was our first Lory, and I shudder to think of what his fate

would have been if a naturalist friend had not arrived the day after

his purchase and told us how to make up the equivalent of the bird’s

natural food. Until then he had sat gloomily picking to pieces the

Parrot food with which we had provided him, and as all Lories are

nectar-feeders one can imagine his inward comments.


We’ve kept many Lories since Alfred, but only two are outstanding

in my memory. One a Black Lory, a soft bronzy black, washed under¬

neath the body with a delicate sapphire-blue, a bird which followed

me about like a dog, and which would clamber on to my shoulder

and “ chuss ” around my neck, keeping up a running commentary of

soft mutterings. You could give this bird a piece of paper rolled up

into a ball, and it would play for hours like a kitten, lying on its side

and “ back-pedalling ” it till quite exhausted. The other, a little

Rosenberg’s Lorikeet, “ Ikey,” a tiny green-jewelled thing, was a

bundle of nerves and intelligence. One morning he was found dead

in his cage and we never discovered the cause of his untimely end.


Now Alfred was a bird of altogether different fibre. If one coughed

or sneezed in the night there was an instant reply, a hollow cough or

sneeze followed, I regret to say, by the usual “ postscript ” which

is universal throughout the East, and generally accompanies a heavy

cold. The daily bath was a great event. A bowl of water would be

placed invitingly near, and after many coughs and sneezes (and PSS.)

he would clamber carefully down and perch on the edge and splash

and shriek and drink and—yes—gargle to his heart’s content.


One early morning, when the birds were all being put out to enjoy

the first rays of the sun, an unusual clamour of human voices arose

through the cool dew-drenched air, and hurrying feet were heard

approaching from all sides. All these sounds being so very odd at that

hour of the morning I was compelled to tip-toe to the edge of the

veranda and peer cautiously over. Never shall I forget the expression

in the topaz eye that was turned up to meet mine ! What pride,



