134 



they feed Nightingales in Italy, and would like to say 

 that I have myself used live silkworms for feeding soft- 

 bills (and the birds ate them readily), but I made no 

 mention of them in my article because I do not think 

 that they are at all worth their cost (in England) from a 

 food point of view. 



Quite recently I had a long talk with Lord 

 Wallscourt on the management of insectivorous birds, 

 and his lordship shewed me a box full of dead silkworm 

 chrysalides or pupae, from which tlie silken cocoons had 

 been removed, which I understood his lordship to say he 

 had received from Paris — and he was in the habit of 

 giving them, by way of a treat, to a pet Italian Rock 

 Thrush [Turdus saxatilis). 



I should like to ask the Countess Tommasi Baldelli 

 if I am not right in supposing that what she terms 

 " dried silkworms " are in the chrysalis stage, and not in 

 the larval stage — as her letter would give one to suppose. 



John Frostick. 



POINT PRIZEvS. 



Sir, — On another page I have put forward the 

 proposal that special prizes offered by the P\ B. C. 

 should in future be for most points. 



My reason for proposing that the prizes be given for 

 points is that the present method gives a lot of trouble 

 all round, and is most unsatisfactory. 



There is no such thing as " the best bird" in a show 

 where there is more than one class. I contend that 

 there is a best bird in eveiy class, and to say that one 

 bird is better than every other best bird is neither right 

 nor fair. 



Under the present requirements, F. B. C. specials 

 have been, on several occasions, awarded to birds not 

 eligible and, moreover, have been awarded after the 

 Judges knew to whom the birds belonged, and on the 

 second day of the show, which is not right nor proper. 



If points were adopted these errors would not occur. 



