dies, and
was most indignant. A rush at the thief, with an angry chirp, sent Bobby
flying away in ignominious haste, a wiser, but not a repentant bird; for
he continued his robberies, only with care to avoid being caught; he
ventured only a little way into the cage, ready to go out at a moment's
notice.

Zoee had a good deal of quiet humour, and was a character in her way. She
considered me very attentively one day, with a roguish look in her black
eyes, and then, going to her tree-stem larder, she pulled out a hidden
mealworm and held it up for me to see, with an evident wish that I
should know about it, and possibly with a little birdish triumph that
she possessed such delights; and then it was put back again and well
rammed into its crevice until the hungry moment should arrive. After a
few months Zoee became tame enough to be let out of her cage, and would
hop quietly about the room, and, like a small, grey-coated detective,
would peer about stealthily under tables and chairs in search of live
dainties; and extremely pretty she looked as she crept up the curtains
with jerky motions, evidently thinking they were tree-stems where, by
careful search, delightful centipedes and beetles might be found.

I do not know if naturalists have remarked that the nuthatch has a very
limited range of vision. Zoee could see nothing beyond twelve or fourteen
inches; the most tempting mealworm might lie on the floor of the cage
unnoticed if she happened to be on her tree-stem; and I have tried
bringing the insect nearer by degrees, and found that only when within a
foot of her eyes could she see it, and I fancy then only indistinctly
as she would peer about excitedly, as if uncertain what it was, until
near enough to be in the focus of clear vision, and then, by a sudden
dart, she would seize and flit away with it.

At first Zoee's roosting-place was under the curved piece of bark lying
on the floor of her cage, but after a time she took up her nightly
quarters in a small box which hooked on to the side of her cage. It was
a very cramped and uncomfortable lodging, and I wondered how she
contrived to squeeze into such a small space. It occurred to me that a
little cocoa-nut with a hole at one end would be the sort of
sleeping-chamber she would prefer, as being most like a hole in a
tree-stem, in which, probably, nuthatches roost.

An empty cocoa-nut was, therefore, provided. With birdish distrust and
caution Zoee only eyed it for s