177 



like others who have done the same, that the sickness 

 and death rate has since diminished. 



As staple food, always supplied in the hoppers, 

 the seed eating birds in my aviaries get canary seed, 

 white or brown millet, and brown rape seed. As 

 intermittent diet they get oats, hemp, black rape, sun- 

 flower, inga, linseed, teazle— in fact any seed or 

 mixture of seeds that comes to hand, whether it is 

 Anathema or not. For instance, if I come across a 

 spray of dock-seed, or a thistle-head, or a handful of 

 grass-seed, or indeed any wild or garden seed that I 

 do not absolutely know to be poisonous, into the 

 aviary it goes. In the way of green stuff and fruit I 

 am equally catholic : lettuce, groundsel, chickweed, 

 grass, plantain, rose leaves, dock, nasturtium leaves 

 and flowers, mustard and cress, apple shoots, or indeed 

 any handful of weeds pulled out of the garden, and 

 any kind of fruit that is handy, all are given just as 

 occasion serves. Even the Mountain Ash berries 

 (falsely credited with being poisonous to captive birds 

 on the score of two 7iewly iinpojied Pine Grosbeaks 

 having died in fits soon after eating them) are used 

 with advantage when I can get hold of them. 



When moulting and breeding the hard bills also 

 have a dish of my insectile food, and whenever I give 

 the insectivorous birds any mealworms or gentles a 

 few are thrown in to these as well. 



In days gone by I used to find the keeping of 

 insectivorous birds more irksome as regards their 

 feeding than that of the seed eaters. Now that is 

 all changed, and with my present method they are 

 quite as easy to feed as the others. From Thrushes 

 down to what are called the "delicate" species they 

 all have the same food. This is composed of — roughly 

 speaking — about equal parts by weight of crushed 

 biscuit (generally unsweetened), dried water bugs, 



