Correspondence. 187 



The young look ivell, are covered with flufY, and grow fast. 



The Indigo Buntings also are nesting, but have onl'y reached the 

 egg stage as yet. I wish I could get hold of a hen Rainbow Bunting 

 for I have a oock whiclt is anxious to go to nsst. 



Last year someone gave me a crippled cock Greenfinch, which I 

 turned into the aviary ; this spring I picked up a hen temporarily dis- 

 abled and turned K er in likewise. They have a nest of young, but I 

 do no', know how many. 



ETHEL F. CHAWNER. 

 Lyndhurst, Hants, i8-6-'i6. 



WHOLESALE FLY-CATCHING. 



Sir, — The enclosed newspaper cutting is of interest as describing 

 the methods of capture and preserving of dried flies, and as indicating 

 the extent of the industry. 



" Among the Sierra Madres of Mexico, eight thousand feet high 

 " and about fifteen miles from, the capital of the republic, is San Vicente, 

 " a town with a population under fifteen hundred. Most of the inhabitants 

 "earn their living by catching flies. 



"lAlthough the elevation is so great, San Vicente lies in the 

 ";midst of a marsh that surround? ^ chain of lakes— Tczcoco, Xochimil'co, 

 " and Chalco. Here, in the black mud, subsisting on the rank vegeta- 

 " tion, breed countless millions of black flies, somewhat larger than out 

 "ordinary house fly. Day in, day out, month after month, hundreds 

 " of peons splash about, up to their knees in water. They are dressed 

 " only in cotton trousers, rolled halfway up the thighs, supported by a 

 " banda, or sash, wound many times about the waist, a cotton shirt, and 

 "p grea; sombrero, or conical wide-brimmed hat. Each is armed with a 

 " fine-meshed long-handled net, and carries a leather or cloth bag slung 

 " by a jdraw-string from the shoulder. At the approach of the peon the 

 " the flies rise in great clouds, and, as quickly as the peon moves his 

 "iirms, snares the insects in the net and literally shovels them into the 

 " bag. 



" At, the end of the day he takes the bags to certain primitive 

 " presses of wood and stone. Rows of boxes, six inches by six incheii 

 " stand side by side. Each box has a lid three or four inches thick, 

 "which fits into the mouth of the box, ijul so loosjly that it can slide 

 " up and down like rlie plunger on the end of a piston rod. 



"The natives shovel the flics into the boxes with wooden paddles. 

 " As fast as each box is filled the men lay the thick lid on the squirming 

 " mass. When two lines of boxes have been filled, planks are laid along. 

 " the tops of the boxes, and stones to the amount of several hundred- 

 " weight arc piled on them. After a day in the ])rfss the men (Mnpty the 

 "boxes and dry the six-inch cubes of pressed flics in the sun. The* 

 "process makes the finest bird food in the world." 



