on the best system of feeding insectivorous birds. 145


down, a bird devours three or more, whilst another eats one; by

the time he has swallowed this one the others are all gone, this bird

sooner or later looks soft and the simple remedy is to catch him up,

put him into a cage and give extra live food and when vigorous

enough to stand up for himself put him hack in the aviary.


This bother often occurs with new birds put into an aviary,

but it can he prevented and the birds saved with very little trouble.

Say someone wishes to put a few British or foreign soft-billed birds

into an aviary which contains some old stagers who know all the food

vessels by heart; when the purchaser receives the birds they should

be kept in cages for a couple of days to rest after travelling and get

used a little to their fresh surroundings.


Several food vessels should contain food with a fair amount

of live food ; if mealworms ,1 should prefer to cut them up. These

vessels should be placed in several parts of the aviary : birds that

feed on the ground, vessels of food on the ground, others that feed in

trees—such as tree-creepers, goldcrests and such like—hang food

tins on the branches in two or three places, so that the food will be

discovered easily. They should be watched for the first day or so

to see that they do really go to feed without being driven by the old

occupants. As soon as the birds are familiar with the food places

there will be very little to bother about.


In sumnier time, when live ants’ eggs are in season, the birds

in an aviary can all get their fair share of live food, for a bowl of

soft food, containing a fair proportion of the ants’ eggs will ensure

all getting the necessary amount of it, and it takes a quarter of the

time to feed round ; but in winter, when only wasp grubs and meal¬

worms are to be had, I prefer to cut or chop them up small as

there is a much better chance of each bird getting its share. Gentles

are fairly good as a change, but I should not expect a bird to do

well on this as its only kind of live food, at any rate not for any

length of time.


There is a proper way to feed with gentles: if they have a

blackish mark down the centre they should be kept in dry sawdust

for a few days until the dark mark, which is the offensive fluid they

have been feeding on, has disappeared, they will then be clean and

of a creamy white colour, they are then fit to feed to the birds.



