on the Regent Bird.



89



these treasures—they might have been blue diamonds such a

price I had to pay for them, such a difficulty I experienced in

obtaining them ; and this in London, full of cockroaches, and of

people begging for money, but too selfish and spoilt to stretch

out a finger to help one. I could enter into the feelings of the

Ancient Mariner, and cry out in my despair, “ Beetles, beetles

everywhere but ne’er a one for me.” From time to time the

mother would carry mealworms, but only under protest; gentles

I think she never touched ; then for a while she tried cut up

sultana raisins ; egg-flake had a very brief and inglorious innings ;

and at last she came to sop ; and for weeks the two young

Regents were fed more on biscuit-sop than anything else. Fruit

she would not look at; but I have seen her pull up sprouting

wheat about two inches long and stuff it down the youngsters’

throats. During this time she did what I never before saw a

Regent do—dart into the air after any winged creature that

might chance to enter the aviary. She was ever on the alert,

worked like a nigger though sitting very tight in cold weather,

and never tired in her love and devotion to her young. A better

mother I never came across. For my part, I visited the aviary

early every morning, cleared off cats, attended to the food, and

saw that everything was in order ; the cats nearly caused disaster

on two occasions notwithstanding all my care.


It was characteristic of the species that all the time of

nesting and rearing the young everything should have been

conducted so quietly ; there were no screams, no loud cries—all

were subdued and suppressed. Only on two occasions did I hear

the young in the nest—suitable food had run out and the little

ones were peckish I suppose. The first occasion was on the

18th, and I could distinguish two different tones, the first inti¬

mation I received of there being two of them. The cry at this

stage was something between that of a young English Jay and a

brood of common Starlings in the hollow of a tree.


About 4.30 in the afternoon of August 22, I noticed a

strange bird perched at the far end of a long pole which stretches

away from the nest for some yards :—it was a baby Regent. It

was of a very light gray colour, partly but not entirely owing to

the white down, and at a distance looked much like a young



