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Stray Notes



than honey-bees, had short, stubby bills, quite unlike those of their

parents. She fed them from her own crop on nectar and the tiny

insects it contained, at first inserting the food into their mouths by

means of her tongue, but later on thrusting her bill down their throats

and injecting them with the fluid drop by drop by means of a kind of

pumping action. Their crops, when distended, were nearly as large

as their heads, and the skin was so tightly stretched as to become

sufficiently transparent to show the insects still alive and kicking

in the nectar. In less than a week there was a noticeable difference in

the length of their bills, and feathers began to appear on their backs.

During the second week they became fully feathered, and before the

end of the third they had outgrown the nest and flattened it out of

shape. Three weeks after the first egg hatched, the larger of the two

nestlings, who had been trying his wings for several days, rose into the

air, and mounting up and up ultimately settled on a twig near the top

of the tree. The mother was away food-hunting at the time ; but on

her return she did not evince the least anxiety or dismay at the absence

of one of the twins. After feeding the one that had stayed at home,

she uttered a few squeaks, and in response to the answering squeaks

of the fledgling up aloft, flew straight to him, perched alongside, and

proceeded to stuff him with nectar as she had previously done. The

next day the second nestling similarly took wing, but not having

sufficient strength to ascend to the lofty position taken up by the first,

flew across the yard and ultimately settled on a tiny twig. There he

remained until later in the day, when he made a fresh effort, and aided

by his increased strength succeeded in joining his companion in the top

of the pear-tree. With this record of the first days of their life out of

the nest the story closes.


R. I. P.



STRAY NOTES


Mr. Chapman’s newly opened bird-shop at 17 Tottenham Court

Road, is a model of what such shops should be. Each of the three

floors is large, airy, and clean and the walls lined with cages that give

the occupants plenty of room. When I called, although the shop had



