The Sand-Martin 41 



commences late iu August, and sometimes continues up to the middle of 

 October. 



As a cage-bird the Sand-Martin cannot be commended : — wlieu on a nesting 

 excursion in Kent, in Jul}-, 1887, a family of five little Sand-Martius was brought 

 to me : as the birds were too j'oiing to let fl}^ I determined to try and keep them 

 as pets, but I found it a harder task than I had anticipated to induce them to 

 open their mouths for the food (Abrahams' Nightingale Mixture) which I gave 

 them. However, after nearly a week's perseverance, my wife and a girl who then 

 assisted in looking after my birds, succeeded iu persuading four of them to open 

 their mouths when food was offered. All five were then in excellent health, though 

 rather too fat : they were very pretty, and when sitting on one's finger, looked 

 exactly like diminutive hawks. Unfortunately, although by this time the Martins 

 were well able to fly, they could only be induced to do so if taken into a room 

 where their food was not in sight. In less than a fortnight they could feed them- 

 selves, and after that they would eat incessantly, swallowing such huge mouthfuls 

 of the soft food, that it seemed marvellous where they could stow it all away : 

 then they would fall asleep, sitting upon the edge of the food-pot, and remain in 

 a state of stupor for perhaps half-au-hour, when they would wake up and begin 

 to gorge again. Naturally this life did not agree with birds whose nature it is to 

 be incessantly on the move, and who get their food slowly and iu minute morsels ; 

 they grew rapidly thinner and weaker, staggered in their walk as if drunken, and 

 dropped off one by one, uutil, in just over three weeks from the time when I 

 received them, the last of them died. Possibly, if it had been practicable for me 

 to be at home to attend to them, I might have given these birds their food at 

 stated intervals, and compelled them to take exercise ; in which case, perhaps their 

 lives might have been prolonged : but Sand-Martius are not suitable birds for 

 the aviculturist. 



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