I5S 



almost ceased lo la^^ I wrote off post haste to my 

 friend Mr. Watson, and besought him, as he loved me, 

 to offer the calves of his legs a willing sacrifice in the 

 nearest ant-heap he could find. He gallantly rose to 

 my request and though, as he said, ' eggs was wery 

 scarce,' he would do what he could to help me. 



I felt all the same that as eggs were so scarce the 

 most rigid economy must be practised — not a very easy 

 thing in a large mixed aviary. Imagine then my 

 feelings when next I replenished the saucer to see a 

 hen Yellow Sparrow hop down and begin her unholy 

 labours on my tiny store. 



After some days I noticed that the cock began to 

 visit the nest, and soon his journeys were well nigh 

 incessant. Every few minutes he would be popping in 

 and out of the nest, like the figure in a cuckoo clock. 

 Down to the saucer he would fly, fill his beak, return 

 to the nest, and then away like a bee that is seeking 

 fresh honey. How many times an hour those birds 

 returned to the nest I should be afraid to say. I 

 should think on the average they came every minute 

 for eight or nine hours on end. Picture that, and then 

 calculate the amount of food consumed, and what it 

 means to rear a nest of insectivorous or semi-insec- 

 tivorous birds ; and, mind you, nothing else but insect 

 food will do. If the saucer happen to be emptied, 

 the moment I entered the aviary there would be the 

 cock and hen clinging to the wire or hopping uneasily 

 about, saying as plainly as they could by their actions, 

 "Now then, where are those eggs?" 



Time passed, and day by day the voces clama^iHiini 

 grew more and more insistent, and my spirits rose 

 correspondingly. Only late on in the evening did the 

 feeding cease. At last there came plethora, and each 

 little bird felt as the Earl of Chatham did, when he 

 remarked, after the enjoyment of a good dinner, 

 * Pitt's full.' At about 8.30 each evening pa and ma 



