68 FEATHERED CAPTIVES 



Read, for instance, how this expert prescribes for the 

 forcible feeding of caged swallows : 



' If they fail to take the meal-worms that you would place 

 in a shallow tin or saucer, after having been caged six or 

 seven hours, I advise you to take the bird in your left hand, 

 open the bill by means of a toothpick, keeping the inner side 

 of the fourth finger against the bill to keep it open, insert a 

 piece of meal-worm or wasp-grub and release the bill to allow 

 the bird to swallow ; repeat as many times as it will take the 

 food, then give a few spots of water by means of a quill in 

 the same manner, put the bird back in the cage, and repeat 

 again in a couple of hours if it still refuses to serve itself.' 



It may be objected that swallows are not commonly 

 kept in cages. That is true, because most of them die 

 in the early days of their captivity ; but the enthusiastic 

 bird-lover delights in dealing with difficult species, just 

 as gardeners love to conquer the reluctance of rare 

 alpine plants to flourish on lowland rockwork. If one 

 examines the directions for administering prison diet 

 to these birds and compares it with the free swoop and 

 darting flight by which swallows make their living, it 

 is impossible to avoid the conclusion that it is nothing 

 but an elaborate system of torment. Even if a professed 

 expert, like the author of these volumes, succeeds in 

 keeping alive a considerable percentage of birds sub- 

 mitted to unnatural conditions, much larger must be 

 the proportion of failures, and consequent misery, 

 inflicted by amateur effort. 



A short time ago I paid a visit to a lady whom it has 

 been my privilege to know for more years than it is 

 altogether agreeable for either of us to contemplate. 



