LEGLESS BIRDS
[To the Editor of the SPECTAT0R.1 SIR,—In relation to your correspondence of late with regard to "Legless Birds ", it may interest your readers to hear of a curlew we had in Australia many years ago. His leg had been broken in an accident and had to be amputated just below the knee. Eventually my father made him a wooden leg of bamboo ; using the round part for a socket in which, after it had been well padded, the stump was fitted in and firmly secured with chamois leather, the lower part of the bamboo cut away and made much lighter. The bird adapted himself directly to the artificial limb and ran about almost as nimbly as before. Indeed he was so active that the " leg " soon wore down and had to be renewed about every six weeks. He was devoted to my father and followed
him about just like a dog, sleeping under his window at night and giving a little cry if he heard any sound in the room. We had quantities, of birds of all kinds, running loose, but " Curly " was easily the " star " performer and more intelligent than many human beings. His end, alas ! we never knew for he disappeared one night, and we could only conclude he had been stolen. All efforts to find him failed—
and we were left with' the usual heartbreak am, Sir, &c.,
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