62



Notes from the Scampston Aviaries.



haunts. Sometimes one bird calls alone, but, frequently, after

two or three notes, the other chimes in, and a melancholy duet

follows, which often surprises strangers, for my birds are ex¬

tremely tame, and being under no necessity of concealing their

whereabouts, often whistle at all times of the day. My Thicknees

have not laid, but they are good friends and there are differences

in plumage, and I have hopes that they are a pair, and if we ever

have a genial summer again, they should go to nest.


Mr, Starkey’s third photograph shows a drake Common

Scoter, which I did not keep long. It had evidently been caught

some time when it reached me, was light in flesh and had been

kept from water till its plumage had lost all its water-shedding

qualities. This is a great mistake on the part of the Dutch

netters and the cause of the loss of many an interesting bird,

for without the greatest care such a bird, when it finds water

before it, soaks itself again and again, and if the weather be at

all cold, often contracts pneumonia or other lung trouble.


I have not found Scoters nearly so easy to acclimatize as

some sea ducks, such as Eiders, Scaup, and Golden Eyes for in¬

stance ; but I once had two Scoters sent to me late in the spring,

which, as they were light in condition, I turned out on to a large

pond to take their chance, unpinioned, but with flight feathers

shortened. These birds got through the summer and, after

moulting out, escaped. Scoters will eat pieces of fish, bread and

barley, and Spratts’ meal scalded. No doubt mussels or cockles,

if obtainable, would be desirable additions.


I do not know if it is the experience of other aviculturists

that the sea-ducks, strange as it may seem, are more sensitive to

cold than the fresh water species, even than those from South

America or Southern Europe, but I have found this so and in a

good many cases. At this moment I have a Scaup drake who

always looks unhappy on a frosty morning, when Marbled Ducks,

Brazilian Teal and Nyroca, for instance, show no symptoms of

feeling chilled. I reared eight fine young Eiders this summer

on a small field pond with high sheltering banks. When the

time came for moving them to their permanent quarters on a

large open piece of water, it happened to be a particularly cold

unpleasant day (in September). For several days all the young



