Warblers. 69 



mentioned, and a mealworm or two every day. Boiled 

 vegetables, carrots, turnips, and beetroots, and soft 

 puddings are also recommended for Nightingales, with 

 a little grated bread, and dried ants' eggs. Bechstein 

 recommends the latter as a specific for most of their 

 ailments, with spiders and other insects, and meal- 

 worms especially. These, he says, may be obtained 

 by putting some with some meal, old leather, or brown 

 paper in a jar, and moistening the cover tied over it 

 with a little beer from time to time. Here they will 

 breed freely, and a constant supply will be kept up. 

 The ants' eggs can be procured in summer from the 

 nest of the wood ant, and if placed on a cloth in the 

 sun, with the corners turned up on small leafy branches, 

 the ants will carry them under shelter from the sun, 

 and in this way they are obtained free from dirt, and 

 they may be dried in a frying-pan on sand over a slow 

 fire, and kept in a jar full of sand all the winter. 



The cage in which the Nightingale is kept must be 

 from twelve to eighteen inches long, ten or twelve 

 broad, and twelve high. The top should be of green 

 baize or cloth, and the three perches (two near the 

 bottom of the cage, and one higher up) should be 

 covered with the same material, as the bird's feet are 

 very tender, and it is generally necessary to remove 

 the scales which form upon the legs and feet, once in 

 about three months. When these grow loose and 

 horny, the legs must be soaked in warm water till they 



