24-4 AXIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



preserves. The following notice of its manners^ given 

 by Freschj in his account of the birds of the Nether- 

 lands, is so appropriate to our present purpose, that we 

 shall at once transcribe it. 



" Soon after two of them coming into my possession, 

 I presented different seeds to them, which they did not 

 eat ; but scarcely had I set before them a basin filled 

 with millet, than they eagerly ran to it. At every 

 mouthful which they took, each went to the water ; and 

 they carried so much of it in a short time, as completely 

 to soak the millet : yet still the grain was not sufficiently 

 moistened to their mind, and 1 saw them busied in 

 carrying millet and water to the ground of their pen, 

 which was of clay ; and when the bottom was sufficiently 

 softened and tempered, they began to dabble and make 

 a pretty deep cavity, in which they ate their millet 

 mixed with earth. I put them in a room ; and in the 

 same way they carried the millet and water, though to 

 very little purpose, to the deal floor. I led them to the 

 grass, and they seemed to do nothing but dig for seeds, 

 without eating the blades, or even earthworms; but they 

 pursued flies, and snapped at them like ducks.* When 

 I delayed to give them their accustomed food, they 

 called for it with a feeble hoarse cry, hke guoak, re- 

 peated every minute. In the evening they lay in the 

 corner ; and even during the day, when any person 

 went near them, they hid themselves in the narrowest 

 holes. They lived there till the approach of winter ; but 

 when the severe cold set in, they both died suddenly." f 



This latter catastrophe might, of course, have been 

 easily prevented, had the birds been removed into a warm 



* A beautiful illustration of the analogy which all broad-billed birds have 

 to the fly-catchers, and consequently to the Fissirostres. 



f I cannot refrain, in this place, from calling the attention, not only of 

 the naturalist, but of the reost inexperienced amateur, to this simple yet 

 interesting specimen of ornithological biography. It is replete with facts 

 which indicate the true nature of the bird ; and of the circumstances by 

 which its affinities, in a great measure, are to be decided. What a fund 

 of valuable information would a collection of such anecdotes contain, if 

 every one who kept living birds in their possession, would note their man- 

 ners in the same way, and in the same simplicity of style ; and how much 

 might thus be done, more especially by persons abroad, to inform us of the 

 habits of exotic species, of which we as yet know absolutely nothing I 



