FOR CA GES AND A VI 'ARIES. 



203 



sour, as this causes scouring, which terribly weakens the 

 bird, and sometimes kills it outright. However, if prepared 

 twice a day and served in a glass or porcelain vessel 

 that can be readily cleansed and scalded, it answers very 

 well, but must be supplemented with ants' eggs, as 

 many as the Thrush likes to eat; garden worms, which 

 should be placed in a shallow pan of moist earth; black- 

 beetles ad libitum ; snails and mealworms being also 

 allowed occasionally ; 

 fruit as in season ; and 

 lettuce or tender cab- 

 bage when these are 

 to be had. Thrushes 

 thus treated will do 

 so well that they will 

 breed even in a large 

 cage, and the cock 

 sings so incessantly, 

 that neighbours have 

 been known to com- 

 plain of the noise ! 



As intimated, there 

 are quite a number of 

 special "foods" ad- 

 vertised for 

 Thrushes, but 

 their chief 

 value consists 

 in the ants' 

 eggs they 

 contain, and 



as these are mixed with a good deal of "padding" in the 

 shape of peameal and rubbish, they are expensive as well 

 as unsatisfactory. The Thrush, however, has a very accom- 

 modating appetite, and will sometimes live for a wonder- 

 fully long time on the most unlikely and unsuitable food, 

 hempseed for example; but a bird so dieted cannot be 

 happy, for it is impossible, under such circumstances, that 

 it can be healthy, and health and happiness, as a rule, 

 are found together, 



THS SONG THRUSH. 



