217 



Xetters to the jEMtor. 



INvSECTS AND BIRDS. 



Sir,— Mr. Farrar's article on " Worms and Feathered 

 Fowls" is, as usual, most amusing and interesting, but as to 

 my experience with some of the creatures he names, perhaps 

 you will permit me to say a few words there anent. 



I can heartily endorse all Mr. Farrar says about the 

 " harmless necessary " cockroach, and almost all he advances 

 re the mealworm, which I have also found much cheaper to 

 buy than to try to breed. In the notoriously insanitary 

 bakehouses of the Continent the creatui-e flourishes, but an 

 English amateur attempting to breed it for his own use has 

 many obstacles in the way of success, notably a minute acarus, 

 that speedih' swarms in every receptable devoted to the 

 reproduction of Tenebrio nioliior, and consumes not only the 

 provisions destined for the nobler insect, but also the latter 

 itself. I have not found that mealworms, imported or home- 

 bred, agreed with my Nightingales and other insectivorous 

 birds unless they were supplied to them in a mutilated state, 

 that is, cut in two or more pieces, and as I strongly objected to 

 the necessary vivisection, I soon abandoned the meahvorni and 

 turned ni}' attention to the gentle but odoriferous maggot of 

 the blow-fly, which was not only much more easily bred than 

 the mealworm, but could have its perfume mitigated so 

 considerably as to be quite inoffensive. My modus operandi 

 was as follows. I procured a fresh sheep's paunch from the 

 butcher, and hung it up in the sunniest part of the aviary, where 

 the sweet breezes of heaven could reach it on every side. I 

 inserted a small bit of stick to keep the mouth of the article 

 open, and left it there, when it was speedily discovered by the 

 flies, who at once took possession of its interior, in which they 

 deposited their eggs. The outside quickly dried up, and the 

 maggots revelled in the inward recesses, from which, when 

 full grown, the}- emerged, and dropped to the ground in which 

 they purposed to burrow and change into chrysalises. But 

 their fate quicklj' overtook them, for scarcely had they reached 

 terra firma than they were snapped up and devoured by the 

 young pheasants, quails, and other birds of like tastes that 

 inhabited the enclosure. I may add that the whole process 

 was effected without any smell whatever, at least that was 

 perceptible to the most sensitive nostrils at a distance of three 

 feet from the paunch. Any larvae that fell from the nursery 



