Lex Matrimonia Avum

…now, thereof the one hen - let us call her Mrs A - is lawfully wedded under the Lex Matrimonia Avum; whereas the other hen, a most respectable creature - let us call her Miss B - is betrothed and purposing to be likewise respectably wedded under that selfsame Lex Matrimonia Avum. Do you follow me thus far?”

…The uncomfortable truth is that the individual to whom Mrs A is lawfully wedded under the Lex Matrimonia Avum, and the individual to whom Miss B, that unimpeachably respectable creature, is betrothed also under the Lex Matrimonia Avum, are one and the same individual.”

…I have a wife yet living, I must honour my sacred vows according to the precepts of the Lex Matrimonia Avum handed down through the numberless generations of the flocked folk. In short, my dear, I must withdraw my suit which I have made to be your husband, and we must part.”

…memory surrrves me it was regarding Mrs A wi’ prior cleem, Miss B betrothed, the twain yoked under Lex Matrimonia Avum to the ane cock.”

…The first document purported to be the certification of the marriage, under Lex Matrimonia Avum, between Mr Tristram Acridotheres and Mrs Arabella Melopsittaca, as she then had been. The other document was, inevitably, a report of the unique successful outcome of the research which had been undertaken by Cerebellum Towers and the Clifton Zoological Gardens and the recondite-sounding ornithological research establishment with tentacles in many countries - viz. the survival…

…I have discovered that the wife whom I solemnly wedded under Lex Matrimonia Avum most basely betrayed me with another creature, a base and damned mynah. In short, she contracted in a bigamous covenant with that fellow. Not only that,” and now the importunate gentleman ground his beak, “but she also had the effrontery to foist a foundling upon me.”

…her swart groom that the banns were not to be published beyond the minimal legal extent stipulated under Lex Matrimonia Avum. Thus, whereas Mr Hawksmoor Perroquet had previously in one of his expansive moments floridly pressed upon Miss Bianca Columbina the plenitudinous accoutrements of the Cathedral for the wedding then envisaged between those parties, Mr Ian Corby soberly resolved, in a manner very much in keeping with the Presbyterian garb…

…to digest this unpalatable truth, and resolved to honour his wheeted sepawker according to the tenets of the Lex Matrimonia Avum.

…honour of allowing him to seek his daughter’s claw in marriage under the Holy and Sanctified Law of Lex Matrimonia Avum. Mr Hawksmoor Perroquet muttered something under his breath - he knew not wot - about a blackguard taking every last thing that was dear to a fellow, which the others took for a joque and laughed at.