MOTES 



THE LONGEVITY OF BIRDS. 

 In your review of Mr. H. Eliot Howard's book I notice that 

 you say {supra, p. 63) that it is not possible to believe that 

 Wrynecks live for fifty to sixty years. May I ask why ? 

 Given that a bird lives in perfectly natural conditions and 

 never suffers from want of food or from excessive cold, what 

 proof have we of the length of its life ? 



It is well known that a great many birds die on migration, 

 many more die from starvation due to excessive cold and 

 sudden deprivation of food, but of the length of life of such 

 bud and seed-eating birds as Bullfinches, Goldfinches, 

 Yellow Buntings, etc., living in a temperate climate we know 

 but little. 



I think one may assume that the life of a pinioned or caged 

 bird would probably be shorter than that of one living under 

 natural conditions, where its food supply never failed, and }'et the 

 following instances of longevity amongst birds have occurred 

 amongst those in my own collection. 



A Barbary Dove which has been in my possession for 

 fifteen years was left me by an old woman who also owned it 

 for fifteen years and who always told me that it was an old 

 bird when it was given to her. It shows no sign of old age 

 unless it be that the innumerable eggs laid by the young hen 

 bird which fives with it are always infertile. 



The second case is that of a Chinese Goose which has been 

 in the possession of the family for fifty-seven years. 



The third is a Pintail Drake which I bought twenty years 

 ago and which was then an adult bird. 



It is well known that Eagles live to a great age. A few years 

 ago we had in our possession the last of the White-tailed 

 Eagles bred in Galloway. The bird was taken from the nest 

 in 1852 and died in 1900. It was chained by the leg to a 

 small hutch and lived forty-eight years under these miserable 

 conditions. 



The Wryneck is dependent upon insect food but it leaves 

 us early, and there is no reason why its food supply should fail. 



M. Bedford. 



[The whole subject of the age to which birds live is one 

 about which we are profoundly ignorant and the only positive 

 facts we have concern the ages to which certain captive 



