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As soon as the bird is caught, it must be promptly 

 suppHed with flies, &c., or it will soon sicken and die. 

 Gold-crests will feed on the flies and spiders given to 

 them, within a very few minutes after being placed in the 

 cage, but, like all other soft-bills, will not touch any com- 

 pound. As to mealworms, they won't even look at them. 

 I have given small ones to them as an inducement to 

 feed, also I have tried them cut np in small pieces, but 

 it was no good, and I never had a Gold-crest that would 

 eat them. If they would, the bother of getting flies, 

 etc., could be dispensed with,— to a certain extent only, 

 for I don't think they could digest the mealworms for 

 very long ; they must have their natural food of insects 

 from time to time. If these insects are mixed with 

 preserved 3'olk of egg, and a little crushed tea biscuit, 

 slightly moistened, they soon begin to eat the food ,- but I 

 never use the yolk of hard boiled egg, although after a 

 a time they will readily eat it, for I have found that they 

 do not assimilate it so easily as the preserved yolk. If 

 dried ants' eggs be used, they should be scalded in hot 

 water, and squeezed out again before being given to them. 

 Pei-sonally, I think dried ants' eggs as a food for any bird 

 are useless, for there cannot be an atom of nourishment in 

 them. If you were to take a bushel of them, and subject 

 them to great pressure, there would be no moisture got out 

 of them. If those who delight in keeping the various 

 ])eautiful insectivorous birds could obtain fresh ants' eggs 

 as easily as the dried can be got, then keeping soft- 

 bills successfully would be made easy enough, but, as it 

 is, we must find the best substitute. 



The staple food which I have found best for the 

 Gold-crest, and, in fact all the delicate species of soft- 

 bills, I make up as follows : — Half a teaspoonful of pre- 

 served yolk of egg, and a teaspoonful of crushed tea 

 l)iscuit, mixed with half a teaspoonful of the white of a 

 hard boiled egg — which is best pressed through a fine 

 cullender, as the small particles so formed are easily 

 mixed ; the whole to be slightly damped with hot water 

 so as to make it into a crumbly state. 



