276 



lEMtorial IRotcs. 



DRIED "FLIES."— Tlie following interesting cutting from 

 the San Francisco Call has been kindly sent in by Dr. 

 D'Evelyn : — 



" Insects vSoi.d by the Indians as Food for the Caged 



Birds. 

 MONTEREV, Mexico, Nov. ist. — Large quantities of 

 dried flies are daily offered for sale in the cit)' market of 

 Monterey. They are sold in bulk, just as beans and peas. 

 The dried flies are in constant demand and readily sell for 

 50 cents a pound. The flies are caught in iuimense 

 quantities by the Indians on Lakes Texcoco, Xochimilpa, 

 aud the other Lakes of the Mexican Valley, and are 

 shipped to all parts of the Republic, where they find ready 

 customers in owners of caged birds. 



These Indians have an ingenious method of capturing 

 immense swarms of these flies in a sort of net arrangement. 

 The fly is found in such numbers and the natives have 

 acquired so much skill in catching them that they derive a 

 frugal income from that strange industry. 



It is said that the Mocking Bird and other varieties of 

 the large birds, which the Mexican people are so fond of 

 keeping in cages as decorations to their patios, eat these 

 flies with a decided relish, while for Canary Birds they seem 

 a very good food to vary with the seed of which that 

 songster is so fond." 



It will be noted that the Mexicans are more alive to the 

 value of this article of- bird food than we are, for the\' are not 

 only content to give 6d. a pound more for it than we do, but 

 they also use it for Canaries. Over here we are only just 

 beginning to find out that Finches can and will rear their 

 young with the help of preserved insectile forms. 



THE PRICE OF YELLOW-BILLED CARDINALS:-A 



private correspondent tells me that he has lately obtained a 

 pair from a dealer for 12/6, and that they have been offered at 

 that price in more than one quarter this year. 



MRS. ASKHAM'S CANARIES :-Tliis lady writes that the 

 13 young birds, whose rearing without ^^"g food was described 

 on page 137 of this Vol. are all of them "well over their moult 

 without having given an hour's anxiet}-." I mention this 

 because they are exceptionally fine birds, and I have been 



