To the Editor of the have heard of snakes a tacking young birds. but we have Susi the exciting experience of seeing happen.
From our bedroom window we have watched, with eat nteret alto Up housekeep: Ing together. "They built their home Under the: wide eaves of our house, and the nest is supported ty " thick the house. ranch of the creeper' that covers
busy. the happy pair were! And yet how quiet. as it they realized that "they" must "not distur the slumbers of the master of the house, 'At last. too. babies. were hatched cult and we heard their excited eluce-Ings "When breakfast appeared, No four-hourly feeding. times. for these babies? Either" mother' of father seemed to be constantly arriving with Titebits "dangling from" thole long yellow beaks.
"The babies grew, unlit at last could see "their ever-open " beaks Shove the top of the nest, and mother and father had to takesleep= ing quarters in an adjacent tree, 95 here' wae no foam for them inthe nest.
"And then—tragedy! Night before Inst "we were awakened by cries of {error from the. nest. Hastening {0 the window we Mashed a torch on to the "scene 'AL first_we couldn't see anything. then we managed. to distinguish dark mass on the test, which "we thought might be a rat but gradually it'began to hang over the edge of the nest and we ssw to our horror that It was a huge snake. "It had tte coils wrapped around one baby bird fond" Wes" trying to. hold "on to the creeper above with "its tail, But either the weight of the bird was too uch. or the bright ight of the torch disconcerted it.
Suddenly it dropped with a thud to the terrace twenty feet below. We tore downstairs and my husband was in time' to deal ita smashing blow With' club. Blood poured out of His head and layin a pool about Toot ong.
Tt released its hold on the bird. He stretched out and appeared dead. The poor baby was already beyond But suddenly we spied a dark mass on the terrace, and it was the other aby—elther pushed out in the confusion or spurred {0 early Aight terror. We seized the frightened litre thing and brought it into the library. His bright eyes stared at us and iis Little "beak kent opening. force of habit. F suppose:
So now the question was, what to with our Tefugee? It hopped around the room. obviously not yet} ready to leave the nest and with no {ail feathers. We lined a basket, with cotton, wool, put the bird in and closed the top.
Before going upstairs again we Yooked again at the snake and its victim and decided to leave them there and take a picture next day.
But in the morning. to our con-stomation. the snake had disappeared, leaving the dead bird and the oot of blood as the only trace of the tragedy, "The servants were very concerned and said that it was very bad luck to wound a snake but not ill it; as thereafter its one thought would' be of revenge on a human being! So here war great relief among the star when we found the ft. long snake dead about 200 yards away from the terrace. We were amazed that after losing' so much blood it was able to travel 0 far 'Our baby, bird was alive and very hungry. s0 the coolie was sent to find some worms and master came down in his pyjama and fed our refugee with small' portions of wriggling]
"To our relief, we had apparently' selected the right kind of breakfast 'The servants produced a rough kind of cage with wooden bars, and we' put'the baby in this and hung the cage in a large ash tree by the house, Then we retired out of sight and watched with bated breath. Soon there were excited cluckings from the cage. and mother and father appeared, and to our great, joy started feeding their baby through the bars of the cage.
Later on. we had the coolie mount by ladder tothe nest and put baby Back In its real home: But it had. Tearned the partial use of its wings and at once Mew off in a downward Slope. Both parents left the ash tree and flew above their baby, erying anxiously. 'The baby landed in a ower bed and hopped off among the thick plants, sat_and watched. and presently the parents one by one hopped. in after' the bird and went back and forward. several times. The baby obviously could not fly upwards and T'was afraid to leave it on the ground as the dogs or a cat, might Rave killed it, 'So we caught it, and its agitated clucking as we did' so, brought forth answering cries from its parents in a neighbouring tree.
Now since yesterday afternoon. the baby has been in its cage high up. among the leafy branches of a: tree. We put cotton wool in the cage and waterproof paper on the top. The mother and father hover around the cage constantly and feed the baby.
We. don't quite know what to do next, How shall we know when the aby is strong enough to fly up from the ground into the safety of a tree?
We shall be so grateful for any advice from anyone who may have had a similar experience, Huxesao, Shanghai, June 13-
The War:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.