224



Dr. L. Lovell-Keays,



cock. That cock was more to me than any other bird and I have

never forgiven myself for turning him into filthy lucre. I believe

some human spirit had migrated into that bird. He was so per¬

fectly human. He would follow me just like a dog, and once when

I reproved him with a stone for being too greedy he gave me a look

of reproach that only Gelert could have given his master. I can

only hope he is alive and well and won’t think too hardly of me.

When I sold him I thought, and had every intention, of giving up

birds and going to the Front.” Even now I cannot write of my dear

little Nightingale without feeling a little chokev. I cannot trust my¬

self to write any more although I could fill a book of his little ways.


Blackcaps are the easiest of all softbills to keep. They are

so largely frugivorous that if you give them a banana they will live

on it. They are very retiring birds but a model of grace and beauty.

And their song is of distant lands, of love, and of the running waters.

They are indeed straight from the presence of the gods on Mount

Olympus. I shall certainly get more Blackcaps. I sold mine to

our Editor, together with many another favourite, and I know

they will be well cared for with him. A real bird-lover is an un¬

mistakable person, and like the poet he is “ nascitur non fit.”


The black redstart is as handsome a bird as you could wish to

have. If it was rare one would not hesitate to give ten or twelve

guineas for a pair. Mine were thoroughly used to confinement

where I put them and I had no trouble in keeping them. Also by

the time I got these I began to gather in a little wisdom. I came

to the conclusion that all these birds died because they were not

meated off at all, in the truest sense of the word, and in the second

place they perished because they never found the food. And,

thirdly, if thev did the old hands swooped down and having con¬

sumed the tit-bits left the “husks” for the new comers. My plan

of treatment is now as follows : I treat all birds received as fresh

caught. I give them an abundance of live food mixed with the

insectile mixture and keep them in a cage right away from myself

and other people for two or three days. I then let them out in a

small bird-room where there are two or three dishes of food left

about. Next I let them out into quite a small flight with exactly

similar food dishes in it. Then, finally, after two or three weeks I



