THE FATE OF BENJAMIN 153 



tardy or insufficiently incubated hatchlings to 

 perish, in the shell. 



Many birds which have nestling young, however, 

 evidently begin to sit at once, since nestlings of 

 very different ages may be found in the same nest ; 

 this is notoriously the case with some Owls such 

 as the Barn-Owl and Hawks, and it is noticeable 

 with Budgerigars, at any rate in captivity. In 

 such a case, the youngest member of the brood may 

 be callow and blind, while the eldest is feathered 

 and almost ready to fly ; and in such cases it is 

 curious that the youngest can survive at all, espe- 

 cially in the case of birds of prey, where it must 

 offer considerable temptation to the appetites of its 

 nest-fellows. 



Indeed, a case has been recorded (" Notes on 

 Cage-birds," ed. Greene, 2nd series) in which a 

 brood of young Barn-Owls when shut up in a room 

 with a supply of meat nevertheless killed and ate 

 the Benjamin of the family, and a brood of Canaries 

 I reared myself all hatched out on different days, 

 the five eggs having been laid, as usual with such 

 birds, consecutively, with the result that the 

 youngest, which was a little overdue and helped 

 out by me with a pin, was fatally crushed, with the 

 next youngest, by the other three. To avoid such 

 occurrences, it is the custom of many canary- 

 fanciers to take away the eggs as fast as they are 

 laid, replacing them with a nest-egg, and putting 

 them back when the complement is complete ; but 

 this is not always done, and the wild small birds 



