Congratulatory broods.



299



Sultan’s diet consists of white, yellow, and red millet and

canary-seed, lettuce, and meal-worms. He is very fond of cake, also

of puddings, such as souffee, lemon, etc. ; they must be very hot, and

have eggs in them.


Sultan is clever in finding ants’ nests in the garden and enjoys

the eggs greatly.


There is a large box of sandy earth in the dining-room, and

Sultan revels in a dust-bath two or three times a day.


Sultan has only been really ill once; he caught a chill in

June some years ago, and in half an hour he got so weak that he

could only just stagger along. He had three drops of opium, and next

day a couple of doses of syrup of squills, was kept in one room for a

week, a big fire day and night, temperature of room kept up over

80° F.


I said Sultan fears nothing. I forgot aeroplanes. One flew

over when Sultan was in the garden one day; he was quite

frightened, evidently thought it was a mighty bird of prey, and he

scuttled away under a bush.


Sultan sends salaams to all who may read about him ; he still

remains full of life and vigour.



CONGRATULATORY BROODS.


By Hubert D. Astley, M.A.


(Concluded from p. 272.)


I also have a brood of Monauls, hatched under a Light Sussex

hen. There were six. One died very suddenly ; I think the hen

injured it. The five lived happily in the garden, until they took

to roosting in the lower branches of a tall cupressus on the edge of

the moat, when one morning, to my dismay, only three ran to my

feet to feed when I whistled. Under the tree I found where one

had been devoured, and by an Owl without much doubt, and of the

other there was no trace. Hastily I lured the remaining three (as

large as full-grown Partridges) into a small poultry-house with a

wire run, into which they walked like lambs, and I tried to encourage

my drooped spirits and my great disappointment by—“ Better three

than none.”



