KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



Wc have shown what awaits the lover of 

 Nature, if he will only seek it. If he fail to 

 do so, be the blame his own ! 



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 diately, through their respective Book- 

 sellers, any of the back numbers of this 

 Journal which they may require to com- 

 plete their Sets. 



At the end of the present Month, the 

 Stock will be made up into Volumes ; and 

 there may be, afterwards, some difficulty, if 

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ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Chimney Swallow, a Cage Bird. — As you 

 have expressed an opinion, that it would be 

 interesting- to many of your readers to be in- 

 formed how I succeeded in keeping Chimney 

 Swallows during last winter, I have much plea- 

 sure in informing you. In September, 1851, I 

 procured two adult swallows, and commenced by 

 cramming them every hour with raw beef, 

 scraped fine, and yolk of hard-boiled e^g, well 

 mixed with a little pure water. The difficulty 

 was, to induce them to eat dead food. This I 

 overcame by placing a small portion on the point 

 of my finger ; and when they picked at it, they 

 caught the food in their beak, and swallowed it. 

 I then stuck small portions of the food on the 

 wires of the cage, above the meat; and as it fell 

 off, they followed it with their eye, and picked 

 it up. It was however a matter of time and 

 patience. One died on the 1st March, the other 

 this morning. I send it herewith ; and you will 

 observe that confinement has changed its legs 

 from a black to a flesh color. I would have 

 given this one its liberty Avhen its companions 

 returned ; but confinement had taken away the 

 powers of flight, and it would only have been 

 consigning it to a lingering death. While on the 

 subject of soft-billed birds, allow me to say that 

 nothing but beef and egg will cause them to 

 thrive and be healthy. Neither will they sing 

 well on any other food. I am also greatly against 

 giving them any insects whatever; and you will 

 please bear in mind that I have had many years' 

 experience in the matter. — H. H., Knightsbridge. 



[We quite agree with you in the matter of beef 

 and egg for soft-billed birds ; it is the only legiti- 

 mate food : although they Avill and do " live" 

 upon other preparations. When we have given 

 insects (earwigs, &c), it has been as a " cor- 

 rective," and we have saved many a fine bird 

 thereby.] 



Due/is hatched by Fowls. — Can you tell me, 

 Mr. Editor, how it is that so many ducks are 

 hatched by fowls in preference to the more natural 

 mode? In my neighborhood, the ducks never want 

 to sit; and a friend tells me that, for the last 

 twenty years, he has never known more than one 

 duck evince any desire to go to nest. It is sug- 

 gested here, that the cause may be the want of 



running water. It seems to me very cruel to 

 place duck-eggs under fowls; for the agony of 

 the poor hen when the ducklings take to the 

 pond is extreme. Their instinct docs not, 

 cannot explain the difference made by nature 

 in the habits of ducks and fowls. Hence they 

 live in perpetual misery.— C. A. B., Northleach. 

 [We, too, have made the same observations as 

 yourself. Where we find one duck with duck- 

 lings, we find twenty (at least) of our domestic 

 hens performing the office of mother to the 

 young ducks. It is not at all unlikely that the 

 habits of the domestic duck may be changed by 

 confinement. There is no other reasonable way 

 of accounting for their so seldom wanting to sit.] 



Nests of Birds. — How delightful it is, Mr. 

 Editor, to contemplate the admirable wisdom 

 of Providence, with refei-ence to the nests of 

 birds! What can equal the great goodness 

 which thus gives industry to the weak, and 

 foresight to the thoughtless! No sooner have 

 the trees put forth their leaves, than many thou- 

 sands of little workmen commence their labors. 

 Some bring long pieces of straw into the hole 

 of an old wall; others affix their edifice to the 

 windows of a church; these steal a hair from the 

 mane of a horse; those bear away, with wings 

 trembling beneath its weight, the fragment of 

 wool which a lamb has left entangled in the 

 briars. A thousand palaces at once arise, and 

 every palace is a nest. Within every nest is 

 soon to be seen a charming metamorphosis ; 

 first, a beautiful egg, then a little one covered 

 with down. The little nestling soon feels his 

 wings begin to grow ; his mother teaches him to 

 raise his head on his bed of repose. Soon he 

 takes courage to approach the edge of the nest, 

 and casts a first look on the works of Nature. 

 Terrified and enchanted at the sight, he precipi- 

 tates himself amidst his brothers and sisters who 

 have never as yet seen that spectacle; but re- 

 called a second time from his couch, the young- 

 king of the air, who still has the crown of infancy 

 on his head, ventures to contemplate the bound- 

 less heavens, the waving summit of the pine 

 trees, and the labyrinth of foliage which lies 

 beneath his feet. And, at the moment that the 

 forests are rejoicing at the sight of their new 

 inmate, an aged bird, who feels himself aban- 

 doned by his wings, quietly rests beside a stream; 

 there, resigned and solitary, he tranquilly awaits 

 death, on the banks of the same river where he 

 sang his first loves, and whose trees still bear his 

 nest and his melodious offspring! — It is pleasing 

 to record all these notable things ; and highly 

 gratifying to have a Paper like the Public's 

 " Own Journal " in which to perpetuate them. 

 — Eliza T., Finchley. 



What is the proper Food; and what are the 

 proper Sort of Cages for Robins? — Dear Mr. 

 Editor, — If you write so delightfully about birds, 

 we who read your Journal are hardly to blame 

 if Ave try and prove the truth of what you say, 

 by keeping "pets of our own." I have just had 

 a nest of five full-fledged robins given me; and 

 they are so tame, that I have resolved to open 

 my heart to you — and ask you how I am to treat 

 them ? I feel sure, if you knew how naturally 



