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Dr. A. G. Butleb,



rarely gave it raw meat, as too much of this tends to produce

diarrhoea, and is better avoided altogether if small dead birds or

mice are obtainable.


My first attempt to bring up young Skylarks was in 1886 and,

through want of knowledge, I lost them all ; but in 1887 and 1888

I w r as successful, owing to the fact that I introduced a good-sized

fresh turf into the runner in which I kept them : in the turf I cut a

round hole wherein I placed an old Sedge-Warbler’s nest, in which I

placed the birds, covering them up with flannel after each meal.

The birds I took in 1888 were only six days old when I removed

them, as I was returning home that day : I regarded this as some¬

what of a triumph at the time, but as only a perky little hen bird

survived the autumn moult, the only advantage I gained was the

knowdedge that hand-reared hen Skylarks were able to sing

excellently.


In 1887 I reared three Wrynecks from the nest, feeding them

upon Abrahams' Nightingale food and smooth caterpillars ; but I lost

all three before the end of the year, probably from lack of sufficient

living insect food. Years afterwards I tried a young Cuckoo, but it

was a disgustingly greedy bird and no sooner was it induced to feed

itself than it simply stuffed until its food-pan was empty, shouting

to be fed all the time it was eating and then going off into a state of

stupor from which it only aroused to eat again : it never attempted to

clean itself and its plumage became matted with filth : I gave it a

thorough wash every now and then, drying it afterwards by a fire,

but it soon died from over eating, unregretted.


Now it will perhaps be noticed that nearly the whole of my

experiments in hand-rearing birds were made in the three years

from 1886 to 1888 although I brought up successfully one or two

birds at later dates, and it will be seen that of the score or so of

species which I took in hand the following were the only ones which

lived for any length of time afterwards, viz. :—Missel-Thrush, Song-

Thrush, Blackbird, Nightingale, Pied Wagtail, Linnet, Chaffinch,

Starling, Jay, and Skylark, and of these the Wagtail and

Jay were reared when my experience in keeping birds was much

riper than when I made my previous attempts and long after I had

decided that it was not only kinder to the birds, but more satisfactory



