io8 Correspondence.


they never get right until the moult is completed which is sometimes not

until the next spring. Your feeding — earthworms, mealworms and poultiy

meal is fairly right, but these birds really require a far more mixed diet.

Mine have as staple food Spratt's Game Meal and in addition to this a little

hard boiled egg, bread crumb and scraped beef, and twice a week a little

bread and milk instead of the egg.


A little fish cut up very small once a day is undoubtedly beneficial

especially for the larger kinds such as Curlews and Oyster-catchers.


Above all things, however, the great essential for Waders in captivity

is shelter from damp, especially wind-driven rain, and in my opinion shelter

during the Winter months is a sine qua non. At the same time if they

'hang' in their moult, they should be forced through it by extra food and

perhaps by taking them into an artificially heated house in July.


Now as regards these freshly caught birds; they should be kept in a

covered-in place, if possible indoors, and in any case carefully sheltered

from wind ; bread and milk is the best staple food for them with hard

boiled egg and scraped beef. Give them the bread and milk in the morn-

ing and hard-boiled egg in the afternoon as the milk does not then turn

sour, earthworms or mealworms as many as you like and a little fish, if

convenient, will be greatly appreciated.


As regards water you must be guided by their condition, the}' are best

with verj' little water; about a quarter-of-an-iuch at the bottom of a broad

pan is better than a small cup full so that when you increase the water

they do not rush at it with the same avidity. At the end of a week if they

are going on well }'ou might fill up the pan one morning and let them

bathe, but if they do not dry up by the afternoon they should be gently

dried with a towel and the water, in any case, removed. If after the bath

they dry up satisfactorily the water may after a day or two be left all the

time, but continue to keep them well fed up. After a fortnight if they are

doing well the bread and milk may be gradually dropped, i.e. given once

every other day and then once in three days, and game meal take its place;

but it must not be reduced in quantity and given with the game meal at

first, or they will disregard the meal and go back from insufficient bread aud

milk. If they are now going on nicely they will not need much further

attention, but if their wings are cut, as is often the case when sent by

dealers, the cut quills should be removed as soon as you are sure they are

strong enough but certainly not for a month or six weeks after their arrival.

It is essential if Waders are to be kept in health that they should have the

use of their wings. If the quills are pulled too soon before the bird has

strength to grow new ones the wound will very likely close up and the

new feather, when it does grow, being unable to force its way out, the

wing will become permanently diseased.


I am afraid you may think all this a tremendous amount of un-

necessary trouble and not be able to undertake it all, but that is the only

method by which one can be moderately certain of success.



