THE FOSTER-MOTHER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 287, 3 December 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FOSTER-MOTHER.

Mareretu. Dear Peter Pan, — It is a long time since I have written, but truly time seems to have flown, and here we are fairly settled into the usual 6ummer routine. I am a bit aching, 'cos I've been bucked off the quietest little pony you ever saw. I turned a complete somersault and landed sitting down, and the pony stood and stared at me in amazement. Dad was harrowing the other day and a hen pheasant's nest was run over by the harrows, so dad brought the seven eggs home and mum put them under a hen. Six have hatched out and they are the quaintest little things, and my goodness, they are hard to see, and when disturbed they run in six different directions. Yesterday I found one utterly lost and chceping forlornly about twenty yards from the nest. I picked him up and ho regarded me intently first out of one bright eye and then the other. He evidently liked what he saw, for he chccpcd quite happily while I carried him to his foster-mother. If one goes to see them during the day there's never one to be'seen. Unless you hunt very very carefully you could never see one, for they blend with their background so perfectly, so the old hen seems to be talking to herself. Do you think they could be reared? So far they seem to be thriving. Well, Peter Pan, I must close. Sincerely yours, NANCY BURKE.