Mrs. Darnton—My Scarlet Tanagers



247



By 20th June, at ten days old, the babies were feathering nicely,

the brown appearing on their breasts. During the morning of 2nd July

I noticed that Nellie seemed to be trying to get her babies to leave the

nest, and having heard from Mr. Seth-Smith that the great fault with

Tanagers was that they left the nest too soon and died from exposure,

I decided to put them in the shelter and shut them up with their mother.


I walked to the bush and parted the leaves : one baby immediately

fluttered out and the other flopped into the bush. The excitement

meanwhile and the noise from the parents was colossal. The cock flew

at my head and Nellie flew at the cock !


I picked up the two offspring and put them on some hay on the

floor of the shelter. Poor old Nell was calling excitedly from the bush

not realizing where they had gone, so I held out one of the babies to

her, which she promptly tried to feed in my hand, and backed away

until she followed me into the shelter.


While sitting resting after this effort, I heard several clear notes

repeated over and over again. I looked round and saw that it was

Kouge et Noir singing ! The first time I had ever heard him—overjoyed

at the success of his family affairs I suppose. The babies grew well

until they were exactly like their mother, except that they had not

the red over the tail.


Now comes the really tragic part. I had to go away for a fortnight.

We had had a month of really gorgeous weather, but just after I left,

it turned very cold and wet. The far door of the shelter was left open,

and the wind must have swept right through.


I only got back in time to see them die.


The post-mortem revealed acute catarrhal enteritis. They were

about six weeks old when they died, and both cocks.


Moral—Don’t leave home when you have precious young birds

about. Something is sure to happen. I was terribly upset, but perhaps

I shall have another chance as Nellie has gone to nest again in the

same privet, and is now sitting—this time on two eggs.



