156 
My Litfle Oivls. 
closed and whon T i)icked him up ho did not opon thoni, but 
toppled weakly forward on his Lrcasl, and lay ini»t innlcss, ap- 
parently nearly dead. 1 i-calizcd ihat somcthin.i;- must lie dune 
and done (juickly, so I got some raw meat and a IVw iiu'al- 
worms and renewed the attempt at roicihlc fco;lin,!?. Owls 
l)elong to the class of birds (of which Tai iots arc tlic antithesis) 
which are eomparativ^ely easy to cram, so liy usin<;' a few drops 
of water to lubricate the way, T g'ot down enoiii;li to i(>viv(^ 
him into opening- one eye for a few sccoiuls. Still, 1 was 
surprised to find him alive next morning and, it anything, a 
trifle bettei-. 1 again started to cram him and after a little his 
appetite began to I'cvivc and he took morstds finiii my linger 
of his own accord. But his I'ccovery was a slow jnoecss; not 
only was he terribly emaciated fi'om lack of food, luit he had 
also cau|:ht a bad cold which made him wheeze incessanllv and 
cough at the slightest exertion. For several days lie was 
unable to stand up and a great part of his food had still to !>(> 
administered by foi'ce; he liad rather a curious habit of refusing 
to start feeding until quite a large meal had l)een tliiust down 
his thi'oat; then he would often begin to eat xoluntaiily, the 
pangs of hunger being apparently stimulated ju^f when one 
would have expected them to have been .satisfied. His diet at 
this time consisted entirely of raw meat and nie.ilwoi'ms, as T 
had read that it was wrong to give ' casting ' to young f)wls, 
advice, the wisdom of which T am not prepared to endorse. At 
night I used to wrap " Peeps " in thick flainiel and he would 
snuggle under his bedclothes in evident appi'eciation of their 
warmth. 
By degrees, however, he grew sti'ong-er, crammmg 
became unnecessary and he began to I'un about his cage and 
and take an interest in life once moi-e. Ide was quite fearless 
with me and soon learned to hop from his cage on to my arm, 
where he would sit for a long time looking about him, picking 
playfully at my sleeve and occasionally Jla|)ping his wings. 
But although at the end of a month he was (piite bright and 
strong, his cold had developed into chronic bronchitis and for 
a long time I jwas at my wits erul to cure him. Medicine was 
of little use. For the first six months of his life lie never 
drank, so it could not be put in his water. If offered on a 
piece of meat he refused to touch it; if disguised in capsule he 
