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At first the Andamans went about their domestic duties

with a beautiful disregard to privacy ; but as the days went on

and the young began to lift up their voices, the parents grew

worried and anxious, and if I happened to enter at feeding-

time, I could hear them say ‘ shush ’ as plainly as we should say

it ourselves if we wanted a youngster to be cpiiet. The cock was

often called to order for being, I take it, too venturesome ; and

I notice to this day that, when engaged in domestic duties, ‘ he

treads delicately,’ like Agag.


Feeding commenced pretty early in the morning, so I

always left a good supply of grub over night. Hour after hour

throughout the day provender was carried to those hungry little

mouths that were always, like Oliver Twist, ‘asking for more.’


All the time I was in blank ignorance as to the number of

my new family. I ventured to think there might be two, but it

was only a blind guess. All I knew was that, if these birds were

to be reared—whether many or few—they must have all they

asked for. I may here note, in passing, that the excreta, after

the first few days, were carried out to the very end of the aviary

and deposited on the woodwork ; and it was by looking at their

size that I daily learnt how affairs were going on within that log

of mystery. For the first few days the excreta were swallowed

by the parents.


On Saturday, July ist, No. i youngster made its appearance

fully fledged. Three others followed on Sunday : or rather, to

be correct, two flew out, and one popped its head out of the log;

so now I knew that my patience had been rewarded and that I

was the proud and happy possessor of four young Andaman

Starlings.


The youngsters have the black on their wings beautifully

laced with white, their waistcoats are snowy, their tails greyish,

their beaks pinkish, as also their legs; and their eyes are the

same as their parents. They have a grey mark down the back of

the head, where the parents are white.


It is such a pretty sight to see the old birds feeding. The

youngsters sit on the ground or on a branch, and as they open

their beaks with a little shudder of pleasure, the old one runs at

them and pops not one but half-a-dozen mealworms into its

mouth. You wonder where they have all gone to. Feeding

begins at daybreak and ends about 6.30, when 110 doubt the

parents have had enough of it.



