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fortunatel}^, prove " too stimulating," as the youngsters evidenced

by their ready enjoyment of them.


Of course I had the good sense and taste not to go poking

about the nest. I did all my observations through a " knot hole,"

where I could see all, myself unseen.


To-day the 3^oung have flown (June nth). They are

queer little things ; dark slate colour all over, with hardly a trace

of eye markings ; no tails ; a tiny yellow edging on the big wing

feathers; pink legs, and horn-coloured beaks. When first

hatched, I forgot to say, they were perfectly naked ; at about the

eighth day they got a sort of bluish colour where the feathers were

coming through, and when next I saw them they were nearly

full feathered. I say pink and naked when hatched for this

reason, that in the account of hatching in the Report of the

U. K. F. C. B. S. the young were spoken of as covered with a

hair}^ sort of fluff, which makes me think that the whole

account was apocryphal. Besides the extraordinary things the

old birds were asked to feed on. "What would they give

the 5'oung ? " I quote from the writer : — " Egg ? No. Biscuit ?

No. Bread and milk ? No. Crushed hemp seed ? No. Meal-

worms cut up ? Yes." I wonder what the youngsters did while

these experiments were being tried.


There is such a scolding now each time I go into the aviary

to feed, and it is quite amusing to see how the old birds will wait

about, with their beaks full of mealworms, until I am gone, lest

I should see where the precious babies are hidden.


I might give one word of caution. In sending Pekins on

a journe}^ never forget to put in a sponge of water in the pot, or

the birds will arrive in a moribund condition, and will the next

day shuffle off this mortal coil, if they do not do so the same

night. I will relate my other breeding experiences at the end of

the season ; but I thought our readers would be glad to hear of a

genuine case of Pekins nesting.


Since writing the above the Pekins have built another

nest high up in an Elder tree and have again three eggs. I have

however, taken the nest, as I have a Virginian Nightingale

setting in the same aviary, due to hatch, and cannot aflbrd to

keep both.



