Mrs. Darnton—My Scarlet Tanaqers



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I finally crept up to the bush—there she was, sitting on her nest.

What a thrill!


Next morning she was still there and I wondered whether she was

egg-bound, although she looked quite normal, but in the evening she

came off to feed and, shutting them both in the shelter, I went and

looked in the nest. Three eggs !


They were rather a light blue, like a small Thrush’s, and three is

the full clutch I believe. She had fined the nest with fine hay and a

little horsehair, a moderately deep affair and very neatly made. She

sat beautifully, only leaving the nest about three times a day for a

quick feed, the cock not assisting at all. I continually wondered

whether the eggs were fertile as he seemed so very uninterested in

nursery affairs, but on the morning of the 20th June, that is, twelve

days after finding her sitting on my return from London, she was off the

nest and, taking a quick peep, I saw two little black bodies and only

one egg. I felt like that much-heard-of animal, the dog with two tails,

and on finding the third egg hatched after lunch, my joy was unbounded.


But now comes the snag. For some little time we had gone in for

that delectable side-line, maggot breeding, but through an oversight

on the part of the gardener, who had forgotten to order a fresh sheeps-

head, we were suddenly maggotless ! I had managed to find about fifteen

or twenty small ones, but I didn’t dare to put them in a dish on the ground

as I knew the Shamas would finish them off before one could turn round.

The only thing to do was to hand them to her as she came off the nest.

This I did, sitting in the aviary all day, as she came off about every ten

minutes. I also found about eight or nine spiders, but I felt that

things were somewhat desperate. I telephoned to several places in

London-—no maggots anywhere.


I had also no idea as to whether she was going to be a good mother

so, after considerable thought, I decided to put two of the babies in

a Tit’s box in the orchard, which had already two baby Blue Robins

in it only a few days old. Then as a last resource I sent my husband

over to Maidstone, 15 miles away, to continue the maggot hunt !

He came back triumphant, having found a fishing tackle shop where

they were sold as bait. Only very few of them were clean enough to

give the birds, but we picked out some which we placed in a dish,



