very fine, may be given for a change. The ones I 

 reared had to be crammed, as they would have left the 

 nest in a day or two when they were taken. I should 

 never have taken them in hand, but someone broke 

 open the nest and removed three of them. (He did 

 not succeed in rearing them — I was afterwards told 

 that he tried to feed them on barley meal). So I 

 removed the other tliree to save them from a like 

 fate. I was persuaded to do it by a friend who knew 

 the nest; as some one else was going to have them if 

 I had not come to the rescue. I only had them a 

 few days before they showed signs of feeding them- 

 selves. I then placed them in a box about five feet 

 long by six feet wide, and fifteen inches deep, covering 

 the top with wire netting. There was a perch about 

 nine inches from each end and a shallow dish in the 

 centre for water. I fed them on lean raw beef soaked 

 in water overnight to extract the blood, and cut in 

 strips, fresh whiting and other fish, and such live fish 

 as I had time to go and catch. When they could peck, 

 the food was put into the water, as they would not pick 

 it up oflf the bottom of the box. They would dive from 

 one perch into the dish and take it to the perch at the 

 other end of the box, always seizing the food crosswise 

 in their bills and striking it, no matter whether a strip 

 of beef or a fish, from side to side on the perch. A jerk 

 of the head to throw it lengthwise in the bill, and gulp, 

 down it went. When they wanted food, they would 

 call for it, " Zip, zip, zip," and they got very tame and 

 familiar, and when I talked they would raise the 

 feathers on the back of their head, like a crest. They 

 seemed to have the power of sticking out, like 

 whiskers, the short feathers under their chin or lower 

 mandible, at will and pleasure. They got so tame that 

 we used to let them out for exercise in the wash- 

 house. When on the ground they did not hop like 

 most birds, but shuffled along with a sidelong move- 

 ment, and then would readily come upon the hand 



