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On the Blue Robin.



The aviary was roofed-in at one end, with shelves far under, and

on the shelves I placed little open wooden boxes for them to

roost iu, for they never slept on a perch. They looked too sweet

peeping out of their boxes, and uttering low little* tee-ee-wees ’

before going to sleep. One day the aviary door was left open

by accident, and they all got out and flew about in the trees.

Wonderful to relate, they all came back again, one or two let

themselves be caught quite easily. I fed them on all the insects,

beetles, worms and grubs, and on potato, bread and carrot, with

a little egg food, berries and ants’ eggs. Every other day they

had scraped meat.


Some of my Blue Birds suffered from a disease in the feet

that caused them to swell terribly. I was told it was a parasite,

but though I tried all the remedies I knew of, and asked an

expert’s advice the disease was never cured. Once I rescued a

poor old ragged hen at a dealer’s. She had been evidently quite

wrongly fed, and had suffered much and needed care and nursing.

After tending her for a little time, I turned her in with the

others, and there chanced to be an odd cock among them. The

other pairs looked askance at her, and would not let her feed,

but the cock took her part, and prevented her from being bullied.

It was surely pure chivalry on his part, for she was old and

ragged. She died in a moult, and the cock mourned and missed

her.


I kept once a single pair, in a half-free state through the

winter. The)' had a large aviary-cage to live in, roofed-in at one

end iu a South window, with nesting-boxes and holes to enter

them by. Iu them they slept. By day the cage-door was left

open, and they could fly about the house, perching on a large

branch that rested on the roof of the cage and reached up to the

top of the window. They ate out of my hand, and came to my

call, and warbled their cheery little notes all day long. The wild

Robins, who fly about in and out of the house as soon as summer

is over, were very jealous of them, but they did not fight. The

Blue Birds seemed to regard them as a big dog does a little one,

and perhaps they recognised that they were in their own country,

whereas they themselves were foreigners.



