S40 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of a Blackbird, and contained four young ones nearly fledged ; 

 the parent birds continuing to fly round and threatening me as 

 long as I remained in the immediate vicinity of the nest, though 

 they were not as bold as I have seen them on other occasions. I 

 took two of the young home and reared them, feeding them about 

 eight times a day, at first on bread and milk, slugs, and worms 

 (taking care to kill the latter), with an occasional variety in the 

 shape of insects and raw meat. 



As soon as they were able to fly a little, I prepared a room 

 for them, putting perches across, and giving them a bed of earth 

 at one end which was regularly supplied with worms ; they soon 

 commenced to pick for themselves, being quite unable to resist a 

 small black beetle, or wood-louse, when moving. To the end their 

 principal food was bread and milk (of which they were extremely 

 fond) and worms ; I tried them often with meat (both cooked and 

 uncooked), but they refused it, though they ate boiled potatoes, 

 and luxuriated in currants red and black. Ripe gooseberries 

 they would also eat, rejecting the skins, but picking out the 

 interior. 



The first time I gave them a bath I was greatly pleased with 

 the behaviour of one of them ; he came up and looked at the 

 water, and then hopped round the vessel two or three times, and 

 finally jumped into the middle of it, and washed away as if he 

 had been long used to it. Afterwards they both bathed regularly 

 two or three times a day. 



At first they were very bold and confident, and would fly up 

 on my head and shoulders whenever I went into the room, but, 

 having been absent from home for a few days, I found on my 

 return that the greatest change had taken place. They had 

 shed their nestling feathers, had attained to the long quills of 

 " adolescence," and were very wild. Their true nature seemed to 

 have established itself with the change of plumage, and whenever 

 I entered the room they flew about in the extremest terror, 

 dashing against the windows, screaming piteously, and finally, 

 cowering in a corner and fixing their eyes on me, lay still. This 

 continued for some weeks, during which time they would neither 

 eat nor bathe in my presence, and, in fact, behaved as wild birds 

 might be expected to do when first placed in confinement. 



About the beginning of July I adopted a new system with 

 them, and used to bring a chair into the room and sit there 



