36



Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



near the sea, where they nest on islands among the tall rank

heather. And then, just to add the finishing touch to the

scene, a magnificent Golden Eagle (Aqiiilci chrysaetus ) sweeps

overhead from his eyrie among the mountains, and looks

proudly down upon the loch as though to assert that he holds

sway over all.


And so our day on the loch is over. The ‘zulu,’ and

‘ grouse-and-claret ’ flies have done their work, and some three

dozen spotted trout, averaging three to the pound, lie in our

basket. But though we have derived some pleasure, through

arousing some latent instinct, while pitting our skill against the

natural shyness of the little fish, yet we have secured a far more

lasting joy from watching, without harming*, the birds of that

beautiful loch in the far-away Highlands of Scotland.



THE SILVER-EARED MESIA.


Mesia argentauris.


By Reginald Phillipps.


(Continued from p. 390. Vol., /., New Series).


I will not weary our readers with the many notes I made,

day by day, of the manner of the feeding by the parents, but

some must be given, as they may be of help to others in the

future. Here again we seem to see how birds do learn and profit

by experience. With the first young, the parents carried (or

appeared to) the mealworms to the nest—though I could not see

what happened at the nest—now they did not but fed from the

crop. Writing in September, just after popping a morsel of

egg-flake into the little tot’s mouth, I realize how tiny that

mouth still is, how small the morsel must be that I offer, how

fingers are useless and how the morsel must be given at the point

of a pair of the finest tweezers; and then I consider how tiny

that mouth must have been when the bird first emerged from the

shell and how absolutely unsuitable as food is a lumbering meal¬

worm. But mealworms, a limited supply of cockroaches, and



* This is good work; but the reckless killing' of birds to make “ specimens ” is an

abomination.—R.P.



