40



Mr. Reginald Phieeipps,



examining it with manifest solicitude, and I felt something must

be wrong; and days passed by and it still remained in the nest.

But an enemy brought matters to a crisis —a little way that

enemies have of helping us by over-reaching themselves.


On the morning of the 30th, as I was taking my bath,

I observed three cats on the roof of the aviary. With a garden

syringe and so convenient a supply of water, on throwing up

the window, I speedily and with much valour repelled the

invaders. While dressing, I noticed that the young Owl already

referred to, who was on the perch close to the nest, was bobbing

and rolling his head about, evidently much interested in what

was going on thereat. When I came down, the parents at once

betrayed that the young bird had flitted, and I soon found it in a

damp hollow in the ground some three yards away. Rain was

threatening too, so I placed it in a nest of hay in a box, under a

shed—for the poor little creature was a cripple (rickets?) and

nearly helpless. After breakfast I found it about four yards

farther on, in a sheltered spot, so there I left it until the

afternoon. Then I arranged a larger open box with high sides,

hay covering the bottom ; and this was the youngster’s home up

to the day of its death. The box was raised on a pedestal; and

during the day when fine it was placed in the open, at other

times under the shed. The fattening wasp-grubs were telling on

its health, so I endeavoured to shorten the supply, hand-feeding

it when I could spare the time with egg-flake, etc., dipped in

diluted fluid magnesia.


On the day that the young bird left the nest, and for a day

or two afterwards, the parents uttered several new little calls

and whispers as, with wasp-grub in bill, they endeavoured to

coax it to follow them up into the trees ; and from that day, and

for several days afterwards, I would hear a low plaintive call-

song of four notes, “Come Dearie do ” ; but the poor little chap

was unable to raise itself sufficiently from the ground to enable

it to make a start with its wings.


Nest No. 5, commenced by the male on the evening of

the day that the young bird left its nest, is close to where No. 3

was, and is in a “ hand ” at the edge of the holty, well concealed,



