I05 



though I do not for a moment believe that egg had anything to 

 do with it ; in most cases they had certainly not eaten any. 



Insectivorous birds unquestionably do better when there is 

 plenty of egg in their food than when fed upon pea-meal, 

 sattoo, or chenna. It does not follow, as a matter of course, 

 that because such food suits them fairly well in India, or 

 because banana alone may keep them alive in South America 

 or the Moluccas, it will answer equally well in this country. 



I suppose I have been as successful as anyone in keeping 

 soft-food eaters, inasmuch as I haveconvinced myself that they 

 are far easier to keep in health and live much longer than the 

 finch-like birds. Now, all my soft-food eaters have yolk of egg 

 daily, whereas my seed-eaters only have it when I consider it 

 necessary for them. But I am forgetting that experience is of 

 no account in Dr. Creswell's opinion, though, if not, his asser- 

 tions can have no foundation in fact, but must be based upon 

 theory only. Well, I cannot waste time in discussing the 

 matter. Experience is good enough for most men. — A. G. 

 Butler. 



Such a choice example as the above furnishes, iti 

 the way of the higher criticism, is too good to be 

 allowed to fltitter out a fleeting day in the columns of 

 the estimable newspaper in which it appeared. In 

 the days to come, when aviculturists, and even canary 

 fanciers, shall have learnt that the objects of their 

 favourite pursuit are as amenable to natural laws as 

 the rest of the great scheme of the animal world, it 

 will be good for them to learn something of the merry 

 times enjoyed by their ancestors, and to get a glimpse 

 of the stupendous efforts made by the obstructives of 

 those good old days in their attempts to counter- 

 act the teachings of those individuals, who so 

 impertinently sought to upset the old wives' tales 

 which had previously stood as the Gospel according 

 to The Autocrats. It seems only right therefore to 

 embalm the lucid production, and to enshrine it in the 

 same casket as holds the wicked doctrines against 

 which it is launched. 



It is no part of the province of this paper to 

 discuss the question of egg food for birds. Three 



