The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-07-17
A MOST AMUSING BIRD.


in London,a bird whose ayiary is con-
stantly surrounded by groups Of chill
dren, shouting with laughter and vig- !
orously applauding, as if they we're
witnessing the performance of some
favorite play-actor, comedian or
pantomimist, instead of the antics of a
rather commonplace looking fowl,
neither as remarkable for shape or
plumage as many another about him,
writes J. Carter Beard.
If, however, you we're to join one of
these groups OF spectators and watch
his actions, feel sure You would
acknowledge him to be as funny as
any human being, or monkey you
ever saw.
He has such an old-fashioned, high
shouldered, learned look when you
first see him that you cannot help
respecting him, much as if he were
really and truly the wise old profess
sor he looks to be; a German pro-
fessor, perhaps, such as you have seen
pictures of, professor in gray
dressing gown, with his hands behind
HIM and his head and long red nose
thrust forward and nodding at every
step, as he stalks solemnly about,
wrapped in silent meditation.
The dignity and seriousness of his
gait and expression, indeed, is some
thing that must be seen to be nppre-
ciated, as must also the suddenness
with which all his stately, formal and
decorous department disappears.
All at once his sleepy companions,
doing on their perches or meditatiye-
ly dressing their feathers and pluming
themselves, awake to the fact that they
have a feathered terror amongst them,
and that the hitherto unobtrusive
kagu, whom they had found no par
ticular occasion to notice before, has,
apparently, gone mnd. With vice.
open beak and outspread wings, with
sudden development of an ominous
and most preposterous crest, where
none was to be seen before, and q
harsh rafting noise he PUSHES at the
frightened inmates of the aviary, he
drives them frantically, squalling,
shrieking and tapping in every
direction; he chases and up.
sets them, and is not satisfied
until, master of the field, he alone re-
mains on the ground and every one Of
his companions is clinging in mortal
terror to the topmost wires of the
great cage.
His satisfaction at this achievement
is evident, his enjoyment of it un-
bounded. He runs prances and skips
about in the most dignihed fashion,
and, finally, taking the tip end of a
wing or tail feather in the tip end OF
his ibenk, he INDUCES in high step
ping, light, fantastic waltz that is alb.
surd and preposterous beyond descrip-
ton. His performance generally
winds up with picking mp q stray
feather There are sure to be plenty
lost in the hurly burly he has
causedD tossing it up in the all
chasing, catching it and tossing
it mp in the air again,
until no is tired or has worked off hit
flow of spirits. Occasionally, how
ever, he varies this performance BY
sticking his bill deep in the ground,
standing on his head, tapping hi
wings, and aourishing his long rec
legs wildly in the faces of the specta.
tors, who never fail to greet the per
Torrance with shrieks of laughter.
Certainly such another amusing
bird does not exist, unless it is SORT
of second cousin Of the kagu, the
shadow bird or scopus umbrella Of
Africa, that plays in pretty much the
] same way. Atlanta Constitution.