95 



At the outset let me strongly advise anyone not to 

 attempt to keep soft-bills unless he can give them his 

 personal attention, and has prepared himself for some 

 amount of hard work, and, it must be admitted, expense ; 

 l)ut if the embryo naturalist keeps only as man}' birds as 

 he can afford time to attend to the requirements of, and 

 the means to pay for the food of, all will go well, and 

 the hard work will only be a labour of love. 



Before we buy or catch our bird it will be as well to 

 consider the most important question of FOOD. The 

 various ingredients which go to make up a really natural 

 diet are as easy to procure nowadays, almost everj-where, 

 as canary seed, and of a better quality than, and at half 

 the cost of, a few years back. The first and most valu- 

 able article on the list is what are commonly known as 

 ANTS' EGGvS, which are really the pupse of the ant 

 {Formica rufa) in its silken covering called by entomolo- 

 gists a cocoon. They form a liandy and indispeiisible 

 food for all insectivorous birds, in their dried state, 

 as imported from Russia and Germany. These should 

 be as fresh as possible, at most uot more than a 3'ear old, 

 or their dietetic value is little more than sawdust : 

 therefore it is always good economy to buy the best, 

 which can always be told by their plump creamy appear- 

 ance and oily touch ; whereas the worthless kind will 

 be a dark brown small shrivelled piece of skin. Those 

 of my readers who live close to the pine woods could 

 not do better than collect their own ants' eggs fresh 

 from the nest, as, of course, I need hardl}' say they are 

 very much better than the dried article, and so long as 

 they can get them their birds will require no other food, 

 and the gathering will provide healthful and profitable 

 occupation for leisure moments. Choose a fine sunn}' 

 summer day, and, having found your nest, draw a pair of 

 footless stockings over your arms and stout gloves on 

 your hands, to protect you from the stings of the 

 insects, the acid from which is very painful and smarts 

 like the sting of nettles. Commence by gently un- 

 covering the nest until you arrive at the eggs, place 



