66 FOREIGN FINCHES IN CAPTIVITY. 







experience, I avoided mealworms and by the substitution of fresh ants' 

 eggs, egg-food mixed with soaked ants' eggs, and Thrushes' food 

 succeeded in bringing up several birds." 



According to Wiener his Thrushes were fed the first thing in 

 the morning on stale household bread soaked in water overnight, 

 pressed out by hand, mixed with one third the quantity of Scotch oat- 

 meal and a little boiled milk. An hour or two later a mixture of 

 German paste, dry bread-crumbs, ants' eggs, currants and egg ; and 

 about mid-day a few morsels of raw beef cut very fine. He then 

 proceeds to tell us what German paste consists of. 



Altogether, according to his own showing, Herr Wiener's Thrush 

 food consists of the following ingredients : Sop, oatmeal, peameal, 

 treacle, milk, egg, lard, raw beef, currants, ants' eggs, hetup and maw 

 seed. I cannot believe that his Cardinals devoured this awful mixture 

 and survived: he must surely 'have had some other Thrushes' food 

 which he tells us nothing about. 



My own mixture for Thrushes is as follows : Stale breadcrumbs 

 and boiled potato (passed through a masher) of each two parts, 

 Abrahams' food, preserved yolk of egg, ants' eggs and so-called 

 " dried flies " (actually foreign spittle-bugs) of each one part. I have 

 not the least doubt that Cardinals could rear their young on this food 

 alone ; but I should certainly give a few mealworms, young Cock- 

 roaches, or any other insects in moderation. 



Ivest some inexperienced fancier should be tempted to give Herr 

 Wiener's Thrushes' food to Finches; I would ask him first to consider, 

 that what Nature is opposed to, cannot be beneficial. No birds, 

 excepting such as are predatory, namely, Hawks, Crows, Shrikes, or 

 Tits, should be fed upon raw meat: this rule, which is constantly 

 broken by fanciers (even by the most experienced), is based upon 

 common sense, and cannot be too strenuously insisted on. 



Some of the most successful Bird-keepers, after recommending 

 that birds should receive, as nearly as possible, the same food which 

 they would obtain when wild; proceed immediately to advise that a 

 mixture of scraped raw beef, or bullock's heart, with sundry other 

 things should be given daily : they seem to be unable to see any 

 difference between a caterpillar and a bullock, excepting in size. It is 

 all a mistake: I have reared and kept purely insectivorous birds, for 

 years, in perfect vigorous health without a particle of flesh ; but one 

 of these, which I sent to a show, had raw meat given to him ; with 

 the result, that he had almost incessant fits until the day after the 

 show closed ; when he died in convulsions. 



