SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 29 



young ones, minutely ticked off after being 

 turned out of a small bag. How I captured 

 them is one of my own woodland secrets : 

 Seven young pheasants, considerably larger 

 than quails, two young partridges, three young 

 chickens, two larks, one chaffinch, one hedge- 

 sparrow, and three greenfinches total, nineteen. 



Our readers must not think for one moment 

 that the young birds are allowed to pull the 

 abundant supply of dead birds about. In the 

 morning they are all full - cropped by their 

 parents, and then sent off for exercise. If the 

 wood is a large one, you may hear them calling 

 to each other from different directions. The 

 old birds are fully employed throughout the 

 day in foraging for themselves, and in replenish- 

 ing the larder. 



After the young ones have digested their 

 full crops of food, and thrown up their cast- 

 ings, they are hungry and scream for food most 

 lustily. Then the parents call them, and they 

 make for the nest, where their crops are filled 

 again, after which they perch for the night. 



Before the senseless and mischievous custom 

 became common of killing that beautiful ever- 

 green, the ivy, by cutting through its stem, 

 .under the impression that it sucked the life out 



