108



Dr. A. G. Butleb,



The Titmice are most entertaining birds to hand-rear, they

stand in a row on the edge of a basket shouting all together and

forcibly remind one of a class of charity children dressed alike and

reciting, but when feeding begins they push and struggle and jump

over each other’s backs to get at the feeding-stick. I neaidy

succeeded with Great Tits in 1886, but they were so intolerably

greedy that, after they were fully fledged and able to fly, they

apparently swallowed some of the wadding in their sleeping-basket,

and all died in one day. Coal-tits I could have brought up with¬

out trouble in 1888, but unfortunately my holiday came to an end

just as they were beginning to flutter about me, so that I had to

leave them to the care of a young girl who allowed them to

get into such a dirty condition that I lost them all. Blue-tits I

reared without difficulty in 1889, and for several months they were

some of the most delightful pets I had, flying to me and running all

over me so long as I remained in their aviary ; but they require

warmth in winter when kept in captivity and at that time the

enclosure which sheltered them was only protected from the cold on

the outside by a curtain. I provided warmly lined boxes for them

to retire to, but each bird would have a bed to himself and per¬

mitted no other to enter ; consequently they gradually all died

from cold. For rearing Tits a good insectivorous food moistened

is all that is needed ; but they must have warmth when adult, or

they will not long survive.


The only Wagtail I ever took in hand was the Pied, a bird

which I have frequently written about as the most charming and

satisfactory of all my foster-children. I and my wife brought it up

between us in 1892, feeding it upon a mixture of crushed biscuit,

yolk of egg, ants’ cocoons, and Abrahams’ food, mixed together and

moistened. The late Dr. Bradburn asserted that it was impossible

to hand-rear Wagtails, but as a matter of fact they give less trouble

than most young birds. I stated this fact some years ago, and

not long afterwards a reader of the Feathered World wrote to say

that he had brought up a nest of Yellow-Wagtails and was delighted

with their tameness. I never heard the love-song of the Pied Wagtail

until my bird became fully adult ; he often sang it to my servant

when she approached his cage. Of course we gave him a good deal



