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Dr. L. Lovell-Keays,



tailed tits, golden-crested wrens, whinchats and garden warblers.

Reedlings I had already and they nested and reared with me.


I would fain draw a veil over these various birds, but I have

always held that one only learns from failures and not from suc¬

cesses, so if my readers will follow me very closely and then go

away and do exactly the opposite they will probably succeed where

I failed. Perhaps I might add a few waders to my list of “ soft-

bills.’’ I had dunlin, green plover, ruffs and reeves, godwits, knots,

&c., all of which I found ridiculously easy to keep, and why it is the

Zoo. cannot keep them passes my comprehension. I have found

that all waders are passionately fond of small bird-seed and of course

earthworms. For the rest I fed them on the insectile mixture that

the other birds would not clear up. I had no time to collect sheep’s

hearts, liver, lights, &c., cook it up and convert the whole into a kind

of pat6 de foie gras ” for my birds, as recommended by some. My

fare is a good boarding-house fare necessitating a keen appetite for

its enjoyment. Redshanks I find hard to “meat-off” and required

endless mealworms at first, and right up to the end I found they

would not do without plenty of live-food, and they generally lost

the colour of their legs.


But revenons a nos moutons,” how about these soft-bills ?

Of course they were all “ well on food ” when I bought them, so

seeing the inside of my aviary was teeming with gnats, flies, &c., I

simply turned them in and the poor garden warblers just as simply

committed suicide. It was pathetic to see them trying to escape.

They never attempted, as far as I could see, to look for food. Their

troubles and trials were very soon over. Next the whinchats suc¬

cumbed. For a day or two they lived on the live food in the aviary,


but even in a 70 ft. aviary you can’t go on for ever, so about the


third day after they arrived they were gathered to their fathers. I

need hardly say I did not put all these birds in at one fell swoop,

like the animals going into the ark “ two by two,” but the stocking


occupied several weeks and months. As a matter of fact the first


birds I got were a pair of that exquisite little sprite the golden-

crested wren. They lived for a week or two after being let out

and I can’t understand now why they died. They were well meated

off, but I fancy I did not cut up their mealworms after they were



