Fish for fulmar, worms for snipe

When attacked by a cat last week in Bideford, a blackbird lost about four inches of its tail. However it was lucky, for Miss B. Shelmerdine, the local secretary of the RSPCA found it and took it to Mrs Katharine Tottenham of Southside, Instow, who will look after it until it grows another tail.

People from all over the district bring injured birds and animals to her and she estimates that she handles about 40 bird cases a year alone. Since a girl she has been interested in animals and restoring the casualties brought to her back to good health and their place in their natural surroundings. The magpie ‘Piper’ is an exception in that it has remained a family pet, easily perching on heads and arms.

The fulmar was found starving in Bude and will stay in the Tottenham household until it has recovered its buoyancy. A wounded snipe given recently would eat nothing but worms – at the rate of 20 or so a day.

Gazette article 23 January 1959