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Mrs. Darnton—My Scarlet Tanagers



together with some fresh ants 5 eggs, under the Tanager’s bush for the

early morning feed.


The babies were almost black, and naked except for a little dark

fluff on the head, and with dark carmine gapes.


Next day I managed to get her to take a few black clocks and the

gardener found a small wasps’ nest, the grubs from which were much

appreciated.


On the morning of the 23rd on looking into the Tit’s box, which by

the way I had done daily, I found to my horror one baby Tanager

missing. For a moment I stared bewildered, I could not imagine what

had happened. They had seemed all right when I had looked at

them the day before, both squeaking lustily and opening their little

mouths wide for food. Then a thought struck me—had it been starved

and thrown out—dead ? A young Tit has a yellow gape, so has a

baby Blue Robin. Had by chance the mother Tit not seen the dark

gape of the Tanagers so easily, consequently not giving them sufficient

food ?


I took out the remaining baby—the parent Blue Tits cursing my

interference from a nearby branch—and removed it to the aviary.

I managed to coax Nellie and Rouge et Noir into the shelter, and then

I placed the baby back in its original nest. Poor mite, when it was side

by side with the other, I saw that it was definitely much smaller.

I released the pair of Tanagers from the shelter, giving Nellie the last

wasp grub. She immediately took it to the nest and presumably fed

the hungry youngster as I heard it squeaking. Then she came back

time after time for more—clocks, maggots, and ants’ eggs all being

taken at speed to the baby until it was satisfied.


They both grew steadily and after a few days it was difficult to say

which was which.


By the 27th they had the wing quills well formed and the head

quills just appearing. By this time Rouge et Noir had become a most

attentive father and Nellie a truly wonderful mother, always on the

nest when not feeding. The weather, which had been very cold for a

couple of days after they had hatched, now turned really hot and it

was most pleasant sitting in a deck chair in the aviary watching the

birds and handing out clocks, now the most popular feed, as required.



