Rcmrnisccnces. 223 



reariiii^- the youns;". The hen preferred to feed the habies 

 herself, and wlien daddy 1:)ronght any food for the babies she 

 would take the morsel from his beak, examine it, and, if she 

 approved, g'ive it to the babies herself. If unsuitable she would 

 eat it. The youn,q' were reared almost entirely on cpiite small 

 mealworms, which were without their brown skins. At the same 

 time the diet was supplemented by lar.qe numbers of midges, 

 flies, etc., and the hen most certainly found something in a pool 

 of stagnant water, for I have noted the fact most carefully on 

 several occasions. A photograph of one baby Reedling, taken 

 most skilfully by Mr. E. O. Page, is given, but it will be noticed 

 that the tail is short and stumpy and not long as in the adult. 

 In fact the tail grows very slowly. The event to me was a 

 veritable triimiph, and T was most disappointed to find that 

 several years before some aviculturist had bred them on a large 

 enclosed natural lake, but had never recorded the incident. And 

 I believe no notes had been taken of the event, and so the club 

 medal was never granted. Tn this aviary were also bred 

 Chafiinches. One would think that anyhodx could breed 

 Chaffinches, but I l)elieve I am correct in saying that apart 

 from the E. Hoathly aviaries Mr. Croker is the only other person 

 who has done so. They are very easy to breed up to a certain 

 point, but then something goes wrong, and the young birds all 

 die. On two occasions I reared young, and the last bird to 

 leave the aviaries when they were pulled down was one of these 

 young birds, and it haunted the aviary without a roof for two or 

 three days. 



Another diflficult bird to rear is the Yellow-Hammer. 

 Why it became corrupted to Hammer I can't say. I believe 

 that the word is derived from the German Ammer. meaning 

 Finch, but I am open to correction. 



The Yellow Bunting, I believe, is still a potential medal 

 winner. • Personally, I have never got farther than eggs, but 

 the Cripples' Home aviaries all but fully reared it in 191 3 or 1914. 



I tried very hard at breeding Long-tailed Tits, 

 but without the smallest success. In the absence of the 

 sheep's wool and spider-webs, etc., which seem to be necessarv. 



