22J. 



EGG FOOD-OR A SUBSTITUTE ? 



Question : What does Dr. \V. G. Creswell propose as a sub- 

 stitute for yolk of egg ? I always give my birds in the aviary, 

 Britishers and foreigners, one yolk or half a yolk of a fresh e^g^ 

 every day, mixed with potato and ants' eggs and biscuit. I 

 have had two or three Canaries die, and their bodies seem very 

 swollen, but I have lost no foreign birds, and the diet seems to 

 suit all. In cold weather I always give a larger allowance of egg, 

 and I considered it was owing to this strong food that the birds 

 did so well in the cold dark nights, as they have no heat nor 

 artificial light. T always thought that the Canaries died from 

 over eating on the rich food, but they never died suddenly, and 

 all are well now. ]M. C. H. 



A?iS7ce)' : No substitute for the egg is required. Ants' eggs 

 and dried flies are quite sufficient. iMr. Frank Finn tells me 

 that the Chinese, who, as he says, know practically all that 

 there is to be known respecting the keeping of cage birds, 

 never give egg even to insectivorous birds. All the latter ever 

 have consists of millet, with the husk removed, and dried flies, 

 both these substances being given perfectly dry. 



Here is yet another practical commentary on what I say 

 about e:gg food, and also on what I have repeatedly laid down 

 to private enquirers as to the fallacy of hard food being 

 indigestible meiely through its hardness or dryness. This 

 fallacy owes its origin to those who talk freely about digestion 

 and assimilation without knowing anything of the complex 

 chemical processes represented by those words. W. G. C. 





