276 



By way of a change I give occasionally a very small 

 quantity of crissel, and mix half a teaspoonful of the 

 biscuit, and some very fine stale bread crumbs, with the 

 white of egg, as stated above. 



My readers will note that this is a comparatively 

 plain diet, but I have found by long experience that the 

 plainer the diet, coupled with plenty of exercise, the 

 better the birds will thrive. I do not believe in giving 

 masses of hard-boiled 3'olk of egg, sponge cake, German 

 paste, raw meat, etc. The latter is ver}^ bad if used 

 freely. Very fine crissel is far better, and safer to use, 

 than meat in its raw state. 



With regard to the species under consideration, 

 there is one very important point I should like to draw 

 attention to before concluding, namely, exercise. In- 

 sectivorous birds must have it, and plenty of it, for it is 

 almost impossible to keep them much over a 3'ear when 

 confined wholly to a cage. There are, we know, exceptions 

 to every rule, but, generally speaking, the birds go off in 

 fits, brought on by being overfed, coupled with 

 deficiency of exercise. Birds such as the Gold-crest, 

 Long-tailed Tit, Blackcap, and the smaller Warblers, are 

 most prone to these fits ; also, I might add, the Greater 

 and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, but, strange to say, not 

 so the Green Woodpecker. 



If we go to Nature for a lesson, we soon see how this 

 is. If we catch a wild bird, and examine the condition it 

 is in, what do we find ? We find that it is not fat, but in 

 good condition only ; this means that the breast is well 

 covered with muscle, and there is just a little fat in the 

 hollow of the breast bone. The bird has to hunt after 

 and capture small insects, which requires an enormous 

 amount of activity in the course of the day. 



Now compare this with the condition of the bird in 

 the cage. We find, as a rule, its tin full of food, and as 

 soon as this is emptied it is refilled. The bird simply 

 hops down, feeds, and hops back on to its perch, and so 

 gets positively fat; and this state of things cannot go on 



