Practical Bird-Keeping.



69



Humming-birds specimens cared much for those given to them—

they may have become inveterate syrup-bibbers !


The unidentified Humming-bird imported by Mr. C. Harris in

the autumn of 1910, however, was actually reared on honey from

the nest, and anyone who reads Gosse’s account in the Birds of

Jamaica of his rather blundering attempt to keep the splendid

Aithurus polytmus of that island on syrup only will see that that

species has a resistent constitution, and would probably do well with

better food and more careful treatment. Sunlight, judging from my

observations on the Zoo birds, is not indispensible to Hummers, and

is even shunned by some when wild, such as the magnificent Crimson

Topaz ( Topazct pella) of Tropical America, which haunts the forest

shades, while some species, such as Selasphorus rufus in North-west

America, and Eustephanus galeritus in Tierra del Fuego, range into

climates far more cold and bleak than any inhabited by Sunbirds.


To pass to very different groups of birds, in dealing' with my

especial favourites the Waterfowl, I have also followed as a rule the

possibility of avoiding familiar types for export, the chief exception

I made being in favour of the Pigmy Goose or Cotton-teal ( Nettapus

coromandelicmus) above mentioned ; the difficulties in keeping this

bird I have dealt with previously {Avic. Mag., VII. 1901, p. 129); I may

summarize them here by saying that they consist simply in the fact

that the bird is very groggy on its legs and at the same time foolishly

eager to climb up wire-netting, so that its enclosure on first capture

if small, must be arranged to obviate this. Cotton-teal should always

have plenty of water and be kept under netting, unpinioned, as they

fly cleverly and perch freely ; they are delightfully tame, a rare

virtue among the smaller ducks. They feed on the ordinary duck

foods.


The same difficulty about land locomotion besets him who

would keep the delightful family of Grebes ; they are very bad on

their legs, especially the larger species, but fortunately do not try to

climb. Their plumage very soon loses the water-resisting power if

they are kept out of water, so that they must be accustomed to it by

degrees. When hardened off, they should be allowed only small

landing-places — say about a yard square — at each end of their water-

space, or as an island in the middle. The rest of the edges of the



