76 
NATURE NOTES. 
Lemmings (p. 59). — R. W. will find a very interesting article by the Rev. 
\V. H. Dallinger, D.Sc., F. R.S., &c., on the Lemmings, in the Wesleyan 
Methodist Magazine for March, under the heading “ Popular Notes on 
Science.” A. J. P. 
Aviary. — I am anxious to know if greenfinch, goldfinch, redpole, siskin, 
and bullfinch need any very special feeding in captivity. I am sorry to have 
them at all, but they have been saved from far worse captivity ; and they have 
plenty of room to fly and natural branches to perch on, and fresh green food and 
seeds, &c. I shall be glad of any hints to make them happier. With them are 
canaries, mannakins, and cape canaries. M. L. P. 
Two Bird Queries. — I should be much gratified if you would let me 
know if birds choose fresh mates each year, or if they are true to their old loves ; 
also the average number of years our wild birds live. 
Blan'Che C. Sanderson. 
[(i) Some birds pair for life, some do not. But the question is a difficult 
one to answer with confidence in the case of some species. The questioner 
should notice which of our common birds are seen in the winter in pairs only 
(male and female), and which go in flocks all together. Most of the summer 
migrants pair after their arrival, the males coming a few days before the females : 
but this is not certain in all cases. 
(2) This is a question much easier to ask than to answer. Where are we 
to find the evidence, for birds in a wild state ? Doubtless the bigger birds, 
ravens, crows, gulls, hawks, &c., live a long time, but as regards the ordinary 
small birds I can only say that they probably do not live longer than eight or ten 
years.— W. W. F.] 
A Cuckoo Note (p. 15). — I have had many opportunities of watching 
young cuckoos in various nests of robins, wagtails, hedge-sparrows, and green 
finches, and watch as carefully as I might I never saw the young birds pushed 
out by the little cuckoo. In one nest of greenfinches in particular that I watched 
very carefully, all seemed to go well with the nestlings for two days : then one 
young one was missing, and I found the little bloodless corpse a short distance 
from the tree. Each day another vanished till only the cuckoo was left. By 
searching about I found these other dead ones ; none were where they would have 
fallen if they had been shoved over the edge of the nest, and though I still 
believe that the young cuckoo is the culprit and cause of his foster-brother’s and 
sister’s deaths, I do not think it is in the way usually attributed to the interloper. 
My long experience as a pigeon fancier has given me, I believe, a clue to the 
mystery, so I pass on my idea for what it may be worth. If a pair of young 
pigeons in the nestpan consists of a very strong first hatched one, and the second 
— probably a hen — much smaller and weaker, it frequently happens that the first 
hatched one pushes to the front, and makes the parents give it all the feeding ; 
the little younger one, feeble, struggling, secures a little food, but not enough to 
do more than keep it alive two or three days, while the well-fed sturdy one grows 
to three times the size ; then the weak one dies, and you find the anemic little 
bod)' on the floor of the pigeon house, where the old birds have thrown it. This 
is a common and disheartening occurrence, as all breeders of high-class pigeons 
know. Now, though the cuckoo’s egg is so small, I have noticed that the very 
day after hatching, the young cuckoo is more than twice the size of the other 
nestlings ; he is also strong and greedy, and his little gaping mouth seems quite 
to fill the nest, because he scrambles over the others in his hurry for food, and 
my idea is that he gets almost all the food the birds can bring, and sooner or later 
the weaker nestlings die and are removed from the nest by the parent birds. I 
never found a dead one with a full crop, but only these little pale dead bodies. 
If the young cuckoo pushed them out I should expect, though only a few days 
old, to find them fairly filled up with food. I should like much to know whether 
anyone ever found the young ejected nestlings in well-fed condition ? 
Alverstoke, Hants. Georgina S. Pasley. 
Gold Fisk (p. 37). — Animals in confinement should receive every attention ; 
suitable food being a chief necessity. The best food for fish is Gordian worms, 
found in mud in still water and sold in naturalists’ shops. Keep the worms in a 
