o?i the Smew.



121



well on its food. I purchased it, but two days later, having

refused all tit-bits, it died.


Again my chance came, and I was more than ever

determined to have and keep one of these birds ; this time it was

a splendid cock Merganser. I looked at him and felt him and

he seemed well and in good condition. Again I was assured that

he fed well, and by his appearance and actions I quite thought

that he had every chance of living. He reached my aviaries

safely. I sent special and voluminous instructions as to his care,

being away at the time ; but alas ! in two or three days he was

dead.


Possibly I ought now to have given up the attempt, but

‘hope springs eternal in the human breast,’ and feeling sure that

there ought to be a means of keeping these birds, whose diet is

comparatively simple and easily provided, in health, I determined

on seeing another fine cock Smew to try my luck once more.


The bird arrived safely last April, but refused food, and I

felt at once that another repetition of my previous ill attempts

was about to take place. I tried him with fish cut up in small

pieces and forced them down his throat but with little effect, for

he threw them up again. At last I tried whitebait, and gave him

one which he took and swallowed, and another and another. The

following day the same process was repeated, and to draw a long

story short I was able to gradually wean him from whitebait to

fish cut up small, and even to taking meal ; this last, however, was

not put in the aviary for him but for some Gulls ; nevertheless

he would occasionally eat some.


He was kept in one of my Duck pens, a place about 12ft.

square with a pond 8ft. square and a foot deep in the centre.


At first he was very shy, remaining bunched up in the

cover all day ; but eventually he became quite tame, coining up to

be fed, and taking the fish from our hands. His nature was very

sluggish, and he spent much of his time on land, entering the

water chiefly for the purpose of bathing. Although having

full use of his wings I never saw him fly or even attempt to rise

from the ground, where however he could walk fairly well, and

better than the true Diving Ducks. The only note I heard him

utter was a kind of guttural squeak.



