I Never Had
An Opportunity Of Ascertaining The Actual Length Of The Confinement,
But On Passing The Same Tree At Kolobeng About Eight Days Afterward
The Hole Was Plastered Up Again, As If, In The Short Time That Had Elapsed,
The Disconsolate Husband Had Secured Another Wife.
We did not disturb her,
and my duties prevented me from returning to the spot.
This is the month
in which the female enters the nest. We had seen one of these,
as before mentioned, with the plastering not quite finished;
we saw many completed; and we received the very same account here
that we did at Kolobeng, that the bird comes forth when the young
are fully fledged, at the period when the corn is ripe;
indeed, her appearance abroad with her young is one of the signs they have
for knowing when it ought to be so. As that is about the end of April,
the time is between two and three months. She is said sometimes
to hatch two eggs, and, when the young of these are full-fledged,
other two are just out of the egg-shells: she then leaves the nest with
the two elder, the orifice is again plastered up, and both male and female
attend to the wants of the young which are left. On several occasions
I observed a branch bearing the marks of the male having often sat upon it
when feeding his mate, and the excreta had been expelled a full yard
from the orifice, and often proved a means of discovering the retreat.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 917 of 1070
Words from 263186 to 263446
of 306638
