93 

 ''MEATING OFF" 



AND FEEDING SOFT-BILLS. 



By John Frostick. 



Many fanciers of our British birds make a speciality 

 of this or that particular species, and stick to it to the 

 exclusion of all others ; for instance, one man pins his 

 faith to Goldfinches, another to Linnets, another to 

 Larks, and so on ; and althouf^h enthusiastic on the 

 particular merits of his own favourite Ijird (of which he 

 will be able to tell you many interesting things, of the 

 existence of which you were in total ignorance) you will 

 find, as a rule, that outside of the sphere of his special 

 fancy his knowledge ceases. The fact is, he is a special- 

 ist of the most pronounced type, and all outside his 

 specific study has no interest for him. To lovers of all 

 wild birds in general, amongst whom I hope to be 

 classed, the narrowness of his ideas is somewhat difficult 

 to understand : still he is an interesting character, and 

 one from whom we may many times receive much valu- 

 able information. 



Soft-bills have always had a great attraction for 

 me from childhood, although I was not then able to 

 keep them on a diet of breadcrumbs and earthworms, for 

 reasons which were quite plain to me as I grew in 3-ears, 

 and I had many ups and downs, successes and disasters, 

 and spent much time and mone}' before I arrived at the 

 conclusions I now place before you. I have every confi- 

 dence in recommending the treatment arrived at after 

 years of careful study, and although not a specialist of 

 the above t3-pe, I have alwa3s had a strong leaning 

 towards insectivorous birds. 



I do not think any real lover of our native song birds 

 can long be satisfied with keeping only the hard-billed 

 or seed-eating kinds; not but that such have many 

 advantages over soft-bills in the ease with which they 

 ma}' be kept in confinement in roljust health and con- 

 dition, and the good qualities of our many beautiful 

 finches are manifold. The priniar}^ object of this paper 

 is to point out to the budding aviculturist how he niav. 



