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and open their bills in a threatening manner with a not too

musical snarl : but their bark is worse than their bite. These

little failing's of temper, it seems to me, are often only evidences

of the natural nervousness of a species which has no power to

resist attack. More than once I have tried to keep an odd bird

or two in their cage, but it does not do, for the visitor takes the

best of the food, and the Bee-eaters evince a disinclination to

descend to the food-saucers at all.


Towards the middle of March, the fogs dispersed, and

daylight appeared, and I swung back their cage a little for the

benefit of the room. The male then took it into his head to

sleep with his back to the window; and, on putting them to bed

in the evening, I placed him in his usual place, next to the

“ wall.” But he would not consent to this ; and I found that,

whatever the circumstances, he must have his wife on his left

side ; and a day or two later when the patient little woman, not

accustomed to the new order of things, inadvertently approached

his right wing, the Tartar threatened her with all kinds of

pains and penalties, and I had to hastily remove her to his left

wing, when he received her with his usual affection.


The great difficulty with birds of a nature like that of the

Bee-eater is the food. My birds had been so “ saturated ” with

mealworms before I received them that I found it necessary, if

they were to be reared, to practically stop the mealworms

altogether, although they devour them greedily. There is

something about the mealworm which seems to have a like

effect on certain species of birds as drinking, gambling, smoking,

etc., have on some persons—the more it is indulged in the more

the craving impels them to indulge further, no matter how

certainly and surely they are travelling to destruction.


Nothing but total abstinence is of any avail in such a case,

be it human or be it bird. The mealworms had to be stopped ;

and, as cockroaches were very scarce (until much later, when a

kind friend came to the rescue), and as no spiders nor insects

were obtainable, I had to fall back upon meat. Insectivorous

food is placed in their saucers, which is never touched ; but of

cooked meat, carefully scraped, the}'' sometimes take a good deal,

occasionally deserting it in favour of egg-flake. As already

stated, they seem to prefer scooping up the food off the ground to

taking it out of the food saucers, and so I regularly scatter the

flake over the bottom of the cage. Raw meat I give very rarely

and very sparingly. An occasional dole of sultanas carefully

cleaned and cut up is usually well received. Cockroaches I



