138 Practical Hikd-Kkkping. 



African coast twenty years ago, and out with Mr. Macalister ot 

 Mombasa, in wliose name I presented the bird to the Zoo. He 

 shot and winged it, breaking the fore-arm, and we took it home 

 alive. I cut off tlie broken part of the wing, placed it in a rough 

 box-cage and fed it on grasshoppers, but it soon left off feeding, 

 so I had to cram it for some days, but ultimately got it on to 

 eating raw meat by itself on board ship, and it reached the Zoo 

 safely to thrive in Quantrill's care. It was the Madagascar 

 Pratincole {Glareola ocularis) not previously known from Africa, 



I may mention that, opportunities having been lacking, I 

 had never kept anything more difficult than a blackbird before 

 this trip, but I brought home, in addition to this Pratincole, a 

 Green-necked Touracou (^Gallitex chlotvchlamys), a Fruit-Pigeon 

 {Treron delalandii) , three Black Gnllinules {Li7fi7iocorax jiige}), a 

 Crow Pheasant {Ce?itropus S2ipe) ciliosus), presented by various 

 donors, all new to the Zoo, besides other live-stock, although I 

 was sent to collect earthworms, and of course got them too, both 

 pickled and living. 



I feel that this finale, and this article generally, has a rather 

 egotistical vein running through it, but I hope this may be par- 

 doned in consideration of my idea of writing thus, which has 

 been to show that the keeping of out-of-the-way birds chiefly 

 depends on the wish to keep them, and that if one will only give 

 one's mind to it, the pioneer work of aviculture, though difficult, 

 is not ab.solutely heart-breaking. 



