136 Practicai. Bird-Keeping. 



they fly cleverly and perch freely ; they are delightfully tame, a 

 rare virtue among the smaller ducks. They feed on the ordinary 

 duck foods. 



The same difiiculty about land locomotion besets him who 

 would keep the delightful family of Grebes ; they are very bad on 

 their legs, especially the larger species, but fortunately do not try 

 to climb. Their plumage very soon loses the water-resisting 

 power if they are kept out of water, so that they must be accus- 

 tomed to it by degrees. When hardened ofi', they should be 

 allowed only small landing-places — say about a yard square — at 

 each end of their water-space, or as an island in the middle. The 

 rest of the edges of the pond should be wired, and if the water 

 can be given a serpentine form, so as to ensure as much swim- 

 ming exercise as possible, it will be all the better. 



I have always fed Grebes on fish, adding insects for Dab- 

 chicks, but I liave seen the Great Crested Grebe recently kept in 

 the Wader's aviary at the Zoo taking meat on shore, and even 

 robbing the Waders when the\^ took a bit to the water to wash it. 

 As Grebes also take vegetable food, rice and chopped lettuce 

 might well be offered with advantage. An aviary is not a suitable 

 place for them, as they require water-range above everything, and 

 cannot rise on the wing in a small space, so they may as well be 

 clipped or pinioned, except in the case of Dabchicks when on 

 water that is not running and so liable to freeze. Divers and 

 Auks could no doubt be kept in the same way. 



Among Waders, I took particular interest in the curious 

 Ja9anas {Patridce), though my fondness for especially beautiful 

 birds led me to specialize in the Pheasant-tailed species {Hydro- 

 phasis chirurgus). albeit this is the least typical of its family, being 

 more Plover-like than the rest. 



These I found lived well on boiled rice mixed with chopped 

 raw fish or hard-boiled egg, but soon became dry and cracked 

 about the hocks if kept long away from a pond, for they did not 

 seem to have the sense to make much use of a mere shallow 

 tray of water. In nature they keep mostly on floating vegeta- 

 tion, swimming occasionally but not often enough to keep their 

 legs wet, so that this peculiarity of the skin puzzles me. It 

 indicates, however, that their legs should be frequently wetted 



