Sarcophaga caiiiaria, and others, including along with 

 them various members of the Nemocera division, all 

 of which are at one moment on the filthiest garbage 

 and the next in the air. I say one can hardly wonder 

 at a picked member of the species withstanding the 

 evil influences to which he has been exposed, and 

 which have had the effect of rendering his owner's 

 establishment a regular pest house to the more 

 susceptible individuals among his birds, by reason of 

 the uncountable millions of virulent bacteria derived 

 from years of droppings from successive rela3^s of 

 egg-fed tenants. 



The last and what is intended to be the most 

 weighty instance of longevity which has been adduced 

 with the intent of shewing the supposed value of ^%^ 

 food for insectivorous birds, (not to mention the 

 avowed importance of protecting the ^<g% - selling 

 industry), is one of a member of the Icteridae which 

 for fourteen years has lived largely on egg food. 

 When, many years ago, I was the President of one of 

 the Midland Homing Clubs it used to be a compara- 

 tively easy matter for us to get birds home from 

 an^^where within the borders of the United Kingdom 

 (or even from Normandy) except from one place — 

 London Bridge. It mattered not what birds were 

 sent, old or young, those in training or those of 

 proved staunchness and intelligence, the result was 

 practically always the same. So disastious indeed were 

 the repeated attempts that at last it became a bye-word 

 that one bird from the Bridge meant a hundred lost in 

 the smoke and traps of London. How many "delicate 

 insectivorous" birds have been lost by various owners 

 in the process of getting this Troupial belonging to 

 one of them to survive fourteen years of ^%% food 

 — a bird too that belongs to a class which even 

 the experienced eggists could hardly with truth 

 call delicate ? Would it be one hundred, or many 

 hundreds ? I wonder. 



