Rev. F. L. Blathwayt,



30



home, I do not know how they have fared. * Both the old birds

are in fine condition, though their plumage has got a little worn

with both sitting on the nest together.


When pleased, the Violet Doves have a habit of raising their

wings and quivering them very rapidly: the young birds soon

learnt to do the same, and it was a pretty sight to see all four

birds with their wings in motion when I threw them down some

peanut.


Before I close I may just add how very useful I have found

Tibbs’ Ouinella for young birds just out of the nest. Often when

they first come out they take a chill, which quickly changes to

internal inflammation ; the young one becomes very relaxed and

possibly lame in one leg, and if not seen to soon droops and


dies_for the parents will not tend an unhealthy bird ; I have also


found this remedy very effectual with other young birds. Full

directions are given with the medicine, and the birds do not

seem to mind drinking it. Though it is not well to handle

young birds, a careful watch should be kept on them when just

out of the nest, so that any mischief may be checked in time.



RAMBLES AMONG THE WILD BIRDS (No. Ill)


By the Rev. F. L. Blathwayt, M.B.O.U.


ON HIGHLAND LOCHS.


“Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,


Land of the mountain and the flood.”


The lovers of our British wild birds who dwell in the

southern parts of our islands are probably well acquainted with

a number of species which come as visitors from Autumn to

early Spring, but which depart with the advent of the breeding

season and travel northward to regions where they bring up

their young. Some of these species push so far North, even into

unexplored regions around the Pole, that their nesting habits are

very imperfectly known or even entirely shrouded in mystery ;



* On returning home I found that the Doves hatched their eggs, but the young birds

soon died. My bird man tells me that they looked as though they had been crushed, so

possibly they were smothered by the old birds sitting together on them.—K. A.



