24



Mr. W. H. St. Quintin,



All went well for the first few days, from July 14th, the

hen (alone) taking mealworms out of the pan, killing them, and

presently disgorging them into the throats of the three young.

But, sad to say, on the 17th, a change took place. The parent,

instead of delivering partly-digested or crushed mealworms,

kept dropping freshly-killed ones into the mouths of the young,

which seemed unable to swallow them. They let the worm drop

into the bottom of the nest, whence the hen would pick it up,

and very patiently repeat the process eight or a dozen times

before she gave it up, and went off to the pan for a fresh supply,

only with the same result. Chopped mealworms, and selected

small ones, and some small caterpillars were provided, and were

taken up to the brood by the parent, but it was no good, they

were not swallowed. Meanwhile my man could see that the young

were getting visibly weaker. So, as the old birds were very tame,

he thought the only chance was to give them a little help by

hand. At intervals of an hour he offered them fresh ants’ eggs,

fresh egg yolk, scalded sultana raisins, but chiefly soft white

mealworms that had just changed their skins. But there was

great difficulty in getting the nestings to swallow even the

smallest morsel; and, when they did get anything down, it was

nearly always thrown up again.


On the 18th, the little ones were dead, and there was a

clear egg left besides, making up the usual clutch of five,

(counting the egg left in the first nest).


The throats of the young after death seemed swollen, and

slightly inflamed. What can have caused this I cannot imagine.

It is true that on the day on which the young were first seen to be

amiss the heat was great (max. in shade 75 degs.) And as the

nest was within a couple of feet of the glass roof, the hen bird

felt it much, for she brooded the young with her mouth open.

But I cannot think that excessive heat alone, all the surround¬

ings being perfectly sweet and wholesome, could induce an

inflammatory throat affection. However, as a precaution, the

glass over the nest was removed, and some perforated zinc put

in its place.


Five days after the dead bodies of the little birds were



