55



ACCIDENTS.


By Reginald Phillipps.


Some years ago a well-known authority, giving a lecture,

made a statement to the effect that if a bird meets with an

accident it is best to kill it and get another, as it is not worth

while to nurse an injured bird. After the ledture, I mildly

protested ; and the great man replied that it was a mere matter of

sentiment. To my mind it is much more than a mere matter of

sentiment. If we keep birds it is our duty to do our best for

them ; and I always feel that the familiar words of Cowper are

not inapplicable in this connection :—


“ He was designed tliy servant, not thy drudge,


And know—that his Creator is thy judge.”


Miss Alderson, as shewn by her interesting letter which

appears at page 207, Vol. vi., has followed in the footsteps of the

humane poet; and I hope that the Shama whose life she has

spared may live to reward her with many a long hour of brilliant

song.


Nevertheless I am not satisfied that it was necessary to

amputate the leg. Let me state a case.


A Chinese Blue-Pie (Urocissa erythrorkyncha), a great pet

of ours, who was most nervous and fidgety in her younger days,

during 1888-9 broke the upper part of one of her legs no fewer

than three times:—(1) an Ariel Toucan approached the outside

of the aviary in which she was confined ; and in her hurry to

dash at him and shew off her magnificence and her pluck (she was

an arrant coward—but then there was wire-netting between them)

she caught a claw in the wire, and snap went the limb. (2) When

convalescent, one night she was frightened by the approach of a

stranger, dashed about in her cage, and re-broke the leg. (3 ) A

3’ear or so later, while as it is supposed she was hiding some tit¬

bit amongst some books which had been piled up in an untidy

heap, several fell on her, breaking her leg again ; this time a

very serious compound fracture. On each of these occasions

the limb was set and its use regained. And when I add that she

lived with us, without further mishap of the same kind, for

some nine years after the last fracture, in the enjoyment of

excellent health and the use of both legs, living with us

altogether for over twelve years before we passed her on to a

friend, I think it will be seen that it is not necessary to kill a

bird just because it has broken its leg, nor as a rule to amputate

the limb.



