on the Kingfisher and Snipe in Captivity. 145


The subject of these notes was found by one of my dog's

in a marsh about half-a-mile from this house, on the 20th May,

1914. It was evidently some days old when discovered, for it

fluttered away from the dog and flew a distance of some forty or

fifty yards when it collided with a railway arch and collapsed into

the road, where I picked it up and brought it back home. I placed

it in a large cage, almost a small aviary, 6ft. x 4ft. x 6ft., and

supplied it with a diet of worms and mealworms. These I placed

in a tin pan filled with moss and water. The little thing was very

timid and shy for the first few days, but began to feed within

an hour after it was placed in the cage, and when I saw it from

my window eagerly probing away in the moss and fishing out

the worms I felt that half the battle was won. And so it proved

to be, for I never had any more anxiety concerning its welfare

from then on, till it met with the accident that proved its undoing

some three months later. After it had taken so readily to the

worm (earth) and mealworm diet, I gradually got it on to a good

insectile mixture, “Galloway’s,” which by the way I can thoroughly

recommend to anyone on the look out for a first-rate food of this

nature, by placing some of the worms in a dish containing the

“ soft ” food. By this means it was very quickly induced to sample

and form a liking for this artificial diet, and a fortnight or so after

it was caught became so tame that it would take mealworms out

of my fingers. When it had become thoroughly tame, I turned

it into my large aviary, where though it unfortunately lost some

of its tameness, it throve exceedingly and waxed fat and prosperous

looking. For fear that it might injure itself when first turned into

the aviary, I had cut the flight feathers of one wing, but they must

have grown again more rapidly than I expected, for on entering

the aviary one morning, I found the poor little bird with one leg

hanging and looking the picture of misery. I fear it must have

essayed a nocturnal flight and have gone full tilt into the wire

netting, probably getting its claws entangled in it and so have come

to grief. I did all I could for it, but it was of no avail, and from

that time forward it began to grow more and more mopy and

listless, and when it finally died about ten days later, proved on

examination to be nothing more than skin and bone. One rather



