194 Mr. Montagu's Remarks on Falco cyaneus, 



Whether the Dartford Warbler usually breeds so late, is not 

 at present to be determined; but as I found two pairs with young 

 at the same time, and have great reason to believe another pair 

 was sitting about the same period, it is reasonable to conclude 

 that they do not propagate very early,— or how are we to account 

 for the loss of the first nests of all these, for there were no young 

 birds to be found flying amongst the furze ? 



I shall now return to the young birds, which I considered as 

 no small treasure: the first, which was found on the ground, 

 had been three days in my possession before the others were fit 

 to take*, and then being able to fly a little, was put into a nest 

 of chaffinches, and placed in a box; and so much did he like the 

 warmth, that he rested perfectly contented, and though he 

 would for several days after fly up to the top of the box to be 

 fed, yet he retired as soon as satisfied^with food, and cuddled 

 amongst his companions. 



By experience, grasshoppers, which at this season of the year 

 are to be procured in abundance, are found to be an excellent 

 food for all insectivorous birds ; these, therefore, at first were 

 their constant food, and after five or six days a mixture of bread, 

 milk, chopped boiled meat, and a little finely pounded hemp- 

 and rape-seed, made into a thick paste, was sometimes given, 

 to wean them from insect food by degrees; this they became 

 more partial to than even grasshoppers, but they afterwards 

 preferred bread a*nd milk with pounded hemp-seed only, to 

 every other food, the smaller house or window flies excepted. 



Before these birds left the nest I put them into a pair of scales, 

 and found the four weighed nine drams, which on an average is 



* There is an exact period of age which is the best for rearing young birds by hand, 

 this is when the tips of the quills and the greater coverts of the wings expose a portion 

 of their fibrous ends. 



two 



