Brittle Feathers. 263 



one morning. I may say that his eye was bright, 

 and his voracious appetite unimpaired up till the last. 

 I believe The Sketch had an article on him, and also 

 reproduced his photo, though I did not see it — the 

 Sketch paragraph, I mean ; I have a copy of the 

 photo taken for the Sketch. I regret very much that 

 I did not have his photo taken when he was in good 

 condition and feather. At the time his photo was 

 taken (sitting on my hand) he was in wretched feather. 

 His plumage was perfect up to his first moult, and 

 until the migrating season came round, when he 

 became, for a week or two, very restless, and kept 

 continually jumping on to the wires of his cage, 

 thereby breaking all his flight and tail feathers. I 

 may here say that I never came across such brittle 

 feathers in any bird. There was no pliability in them 

 — they snapped like dry twigs. 



" During this summer I had a bird which had been 

 shot brought to me to identify. It was a young 

 cuckoo, and its feathers were not nearly so brittle as 

 my own's were ; possibly the feeding of my one in 

 captivity had something to do with it. 



" He was taken from the nest of a meadow-pipit, 

 in June, 1896, and commenced his well-known call in 

 May, 1897. Some days he would call incessantly 

 from daylight till dark. He ceased calling in July, 

 I think, and remained mute till the evening of April 

 9th, 1896. I remember the occasion well; it was 

 about 9 p.m., and he was sitting on the fender, 

 enjoying the heat of the fire. (He had the run of 

 the house at this time.) During 1897 tiis call was an 

 ideal one ; just the same as if he had been at liberty 

 in the woods; while in 1898 his call was entirely 



