Birds. 435 



on returning to the spot, supposing the old bird might be in with the 

 young, 1 placed my handkerchief in the hole to prevent her escape. 

 On taking the decayed wood out again, I found the old hen bird 

 closely stowed in a corner of the hole ; she did not attempt to escape 

 on my touching her, but crouched sullenly in a corner. As I had a 

 mind to see how she would manage her young in a cage, I took them 

 all home, and fixed some pieces of bark to an old shoe, and made a 

 rough imitation of the bird's nesting-place. I then placed the young 

 ones on some moss in the shoe, and hung it up in a large cage, the 

 open front of which was covered with thin white paper. I put the old 

 bird into the cage with them, and some scraped raw beef and chopped 

 egg, mixed with live gentles and mealworms. 1 then placed them in 

 a light situation, and watched the hen's proceedings through a small 

 hole made in the back of the cage : she soon observed the live food 

 and began to eat some of it, when hearing the young ones call, she 

 quickly hopped into the shoe to them : in about five minutes time I 

 had the gratification to see her come out, get more of the live food, 

 and, returning to the hole, feed her young with it. She would, no 

 doubt, have continued to feed the young ones while there was plenty 

 of living food ; but from my not being able to get a sufficiency of it, 

 and as she did not feed them with the egg and meat, I was obliged to 

 take her away from them, and put her in a separate cage, where she 

 soon began to eat the egg and meat before my face, without the least 

 exhibition of fear, and was apparently unconcerned about her young 

 progeny. On going to the cage and blowing at her, or attempting to 

 frighten her, she would look fiercely at me, twisting her head and 

 neck, and spitting like a cat, as before mentioned. 



1 fed the young with the artificial food, and they throve and fea- 

 thered rapidly : when they were nearly fledged, I placed them in the 

 cage with the old one, but she took no notice of them. 



I kept the young ones in a basket on some moss, and as soon as 

 they could hop about they would climb in and out, and all over the 

 basket, continually thrusting their long, slender, horny-tipped tongue 

 into every crevice of the basket, now and then tapping it stoutly with 

 their bills, to see, as I suppose, if any insects would appear. They 

 grew very fast, and were beautiful little creatures. I taught them to 

 feed themselves in about three weeks. When at liberty in the room 

 they would fly to the window, and on observing a fly within reach, 

 would dart out their tongue at it with a rapid motion, and so confuse 

 it, until it fell within reach of their mouth, when they would pick it 

 up and swallow it in the same way as another bird : it was like tick- 



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