PACKING AND SENDING AWAY: NURSING. 29 
has got too thick, or, not being used, has ceased 
in the crop, I do not know. Anyhow, the fact 
remains that if foster parents are to be a success 
the strange eggs or young ones given into their 
care must be almost exactly the same age as their 
own would have been, or they will not thrive. 
You may soon tell if an egg is fertile or not, for 
as the young bird develops in the shell it will 
grow darker, and the egg heavier. An egg that 
is nearly due to hatch may be left for quite a long 
time unsat on till it is quite cold, and still hatch 
if the parent bird returns to the nest, because the 
life in it is so much stronger than in that of a 
newly-laid egg, to which a short spell of cold is 
fatal. 
There is one point more I should mention. 
~When a young dove leaves the nest (through being 
startled) just a day or two before it should have 
done, do not attempt to put it back, for a young 
bird at this stage will never stay in the nest if it 
has once left it, and, besides, you run the risk of 
making the second young ope—if there is one— 
jump out, too, and possibly it may injure itself 
in doing so. Also, do not make any attempt to 
clean out the nest or put fresh heather in it whilst 
the young are still inside, even though the nest has 
got very dirty. A Barbary dove might not mind 
your doing this, but other and more nervous birds 
will not stand interference. 
Though so very ugly in their first stages, young 
doves are most beautiful little things when they 
leave the nest. There is an innocent look in their 
dark eyes that is only seen in very young animals 
and birds, when the world is as yet a strange and 
wonderful place to them. Even at this early age 
they show their fear of man, and they will raise 
their tiny wings at you to strike and defend them- 
selves. Mr. Teschemaker has just caught this 
attitude and expression in his beautiful photo- 
graph of a young Dwarf Ground Dove. I have 
never kept this bird, but have availed myself of 
the very kind offer of permission to use the plate, 
because I have never seen so typical a study of 
a young dove before as in this charming picture. 
qi 
CHAPTER III. 
PACKING AND SENDING AWAY, AND 
NURSING IN SICKNESS AND ACCIDENT. 
I atways pack any birds I send away myself. 
At one time I used travelling box cages with wire 
fronts, but now I use clean empty boxes instead. 
There is no fear of muslin or paper being torn, as 
is often done to the front of travelling cages in 
transit, for people will be curious, and a label with 
“Live birds’? on seems at once to produce excite- 
ment as to what may be inside. Now, in an ordi- 
nary closed box there is only the air hole to peep 
through, and that reveals very little, the bird takes 
no chill, and the receiver of the bird need not be 
troubled to return the box, as it is not worth it. 
Clean wooden boxes can be had for 1d. from any 
grocer. Choose one the size you want—do not 
have it too large, but be sure it is deep enough to 
allow the bird to stand upright when on the perch 
—knock the dust out of your box and remove any 
splinters, and take out any nails that may be in the 
lid. Now saw off two of the top corners of the 
front of the box or two of the front corners of the 
lid—not too large pieces, just enough to make 
sufficient air-holes. A piece of a broom handle 
makes a good perch. Saw it just the width of the 
box, and when you have lined the bottom of the 
inside of the box with brown paper, slip your 
perch in, and press it well down to the bottom so 
that it rests on it. The perch is now secured by a 
nail at each end, hammered in from the outside. 
It is not a bad plan to hammer your nails just 
through the box first, then slip in your perch so 
that it comes over the nail points, and then 
hammer your nails home. 
You can either put some soaked bread loose in 
the box, or you can put it in a little tin drinker, 
the kind that can be bought for a few pence the 
dozen. Jn either case, put your bread in to soak 
first thing, so that by the time you have done the 
air-holes and the perch your bread will be ready, 
for if it is to be of any use it must take up plenty 
of water. If you use a drinker, fix it in this way: 
Straighten out its wire hooks, mark in pencil the 
width between them on the outside of the box, 
make two holes through with a pricker, place the 
drinker in position inside the box (the hooks being 
through the holes), and hammer down the project- 
ing wire ends of the drinker on the outside. In 
this way the tin will keep quite steady. You have 
now only to put a handful or two of seed into the 
box, and gum on the label, and your box is ready 
for its occupant. The labels I use were printed 
(in large red letters) at our stationer’s, and are 
gummed at the back. They are headed like this : 
URGENT.—THIS SIDE UP. 
LIVE BIRDS. 
the blank space being left for the address, date, 
and train, to be filled in. Besides this label I also 
tie on another on the string round the box. Cut 
your length of string off, put out ready the short 
