190 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 
size may be given, as well as millet and canary seed 
asa treat. For birds smaller than a Mynah the small 
seeds will form the staple food, but such larger grains 
as they are found able to eat may also be given as a 
change. Thus, even the little Munias can husk paddy, 
and Canaries will appreciate a few oats. 
Fruit-eating birds can be fed on plantain and other 
fruits, varied with bread-and-milk sop, boiled rice and 
vegetables, and satoo (gram-flour) made up into a crumbly 
paste with water As they are gross feeders and apt to 
get too fat, the more of their natural fruit diet they get 
the better they will live. Insect-eating birds, if smaller 
than a Mynah, should be fed on satoo worked up into a 
crumbly paste with ghee and hard-boiled eggs. These 
small species require live insects constantly, and there 
is a class of professional maggot-breeders and grasshop- 
per-catchers in Calcutta who live by feeding Shamas 
for their owners. 
Insect-eating birds of a Mynah’s size or larger can 
be fed on scraps from the table cut up, much as one would 
feed a dog; or they may be given a standing dish ot 
boiled rice mixed with chopped raw meat, or satoo 
worked into a crumbly paste with this. Cockroaches 
and crickets will be suitable insects to give these; and 
Jays, Magpies, &c., need dead mice and young Sparrows 
as often as these can be procured. Shrimps are very 
good for all insectivorous birds large enough to eat them. 
As a matter of fact, many insectivorous birds also eat 
and need fruit, Starlings and Thrushes for instance ; / 
and these are naturally by far the easiest to keep. The 
