[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Si,—May I add two short bird-stories to those which have followed Mr. A. C. Benson's account of the vain peacock in the Spectator of July 11th ? We have in our household a white cockatoo with a handsome canary-coloured crest who appears to find intense pleasure in admiring his own reflec- tion. He spends the greater part of the day perched upon the top of a large cage, but he is constantly clambering down to gaze at himself in the bright metal border at the bottom, hanging to the bars in a most uncomfortable position that he may get what is at best a very scrappy view of himself. For a treat he is allowed to have a piece of looking-glass on
the top of the cage, and into this he gazes with evident delight, chattering with his beak, bending, bowing, curveting, and twisting his head from side to side in a very droll manner. He may be admiring his own reflection, but more probably, we think, he is paying polite homage to an imaginary companion whom be hopes to please by these strange antics.
Another case of a bird's excited interest in his own reflection has come under our notice lately for the second time. Last year a pair of water-wagtails built their nest in our stable. yard in a clump of ivy overhanging the harness-room window. During the mating and nesting season the male bird con- stantly caught sight of his reflection in the window-pane, and whenever this happened he became furiously angry and excited. Evidently he considered that the bird he saw was a dangerous interloper or rival, for he would peck at the glass and beat himself against it in a frenzy, until time after time the coachman was obliged to drive him away in a state of exhaustion; the attacks went on, however, until the young birds were old enough to leave the nest. This spring the parent birds returned to build a new nest in exactly the same spot above the harness-room window, and of course the male bird found his intruding enemy of last year awaiting him. He began once more to wage persistent and bitter warfare against his own reflection, and this continued until the young wagtails were fledged and had flown from the stable-yard into the wide
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